It’s often said that the small things in life are the ones that truly add up and our Recycle-a-Sack initiative is living proof of that.

One of the many by-products of roasting coffee is the hessian sacks that our green beans arrive in. Hessian’s breathable material, matched with its ability to withstand rough handling in transit makes it the perfect material for storing & transporting green beans – but visit any Pinterest board (or real life cork board for that matter) and you’ll see hundreds of other uses for the material.

You can imagine we go through a lot of coffee sacks each week... so, in 2010, we started our Recycle-a-Sack initiative; an easy gold coin in exchange for a coffee sack. Ever since we first put out the crate of sacks at our Ponsonby Road Espresso Bar, it was a huge success.

We’ve now expanded to all of our twelve locations around the world; from Tokyo to Dunedin; Shoreditch to Brisbane. We leave it up to the local schools to choose how they spend the money and over the years more than $50,000 has been donated. It’s been used for a variety of projects; from purchasing musical equipment, contributing to a new school hall, gardening costs… and then some!

Next time you’re near any of our Roastery Cafes be sure to take a sack, give us a gold coin and we’ll pass it on to a local school who need it most.

It’s as simple as that.