We've upgraded our 250g packaging

We've just finished rolling out the best plastic-free* version of a 250g coffee bag that we've found yet. Skylark supporters will know that we're way ahead of the curve when it comes to eliminating plastic from our retail bags — for better and sometimes for worse!**

In short, the new bags are stronger, keep coffee fresher, and are more effectively recycled with normal paper than our previous model. They aren't resealable though, and won't offer the same shelf life as plastic.

Website customers have seen this new material for a couple of months now, in a letterbox-friendly version; people who buy our bags off the shelf in a cafe or shop will now see a different-looking Skylark bag, pictured here and made with the same stuff.

We're still trying to find a material that DOESN'T add plastic to landfills and oceans but DOES keep coffee as fresh as possible. Bottom line: It's a tradeoff, but we're getting there. Behind the scenes, we've been researching biodegradable films, working with manufacturers, and testing options for three years. It's incredibly complicated and the new bags cost us up to 10 times more than a "normal" plastic pouch.

Since we think plastic pollution is an existential problem, we're willing to work with imperfect solutions, eliminating small plastics from our roastery even if the tradeoffs are a bit of a pain.

If you want to know more of the details, read on:

Reminder: Most "compostable" and "recyclable" plastics are a scam.

In the UK, the vast majority of products labelled this way (including take-away cups) just go into the landfill. Even when a tiny fraction of these items do go to the right facilities, they're typically a) broken down into microplastics or b) recycled into bin liners which cannot be recycled again. If a coffee bag has an air valve or a resealable zip it almost certainly has unsustainable plastic in it. The same is true for any bag that uses PLA or No. 4 soft plastic, and putting these in the supermarket soft plastics bin is not a real solution.

What makes these better than our existing packaging?

We wanted to improve the mechanical strength of our coffee bags so they won't break easily and don't need an external box to hold them. (One layer of packaging is usually better than two.) This new paper is quite strong, and we've spent some time trying to punch our fists through the bags, throw them against sharp corners, etc. That doesn't mean they’ll never break, and the seams may occasionally be a weak point, but the improvement over our previous bags is significant. Obviously, we'll replace any packaging that breaks during shipping.
We needed to improve the vapour barrier inside the bags so the coffee stays fresh longer. We think the barrier on these bags is around 50% better than the previous ones, though still not as good as plastic. If you're the sort of person who wants to keep coffee for months, or who wants to "rest" the coffee for a set time period, you should decant the beans into a sealed container. Still, we think if you keep the bag closed your coffee should stay tasty long enough to drink it all.
We wanted to make our bags more recyclable. Our previous bags were compostable, but since most people don’t have home compost we decided to focus on recycling for broader impact. In industry parlance, the "pulp recovery" of these bags is more than 70% — an excellent figure — and the inner lining doesn't gum up the process. (If you want to dive down a rabbit-hole, Google "stickies in recycling".)

Where do we get them?

These bags are the result of a really interesting partnership with a company called SPP Flexible Packaging, including lots of testing and back-and-forth. This takes money, of course, and our new bags cost us 50% more than our previous models and twice the price of "recyclable" plastic pouches. They're 10 times the price of the industry standard "form fill" bags, which can be made on site in a special machine.

SPP are based in the UK and do all their manufacturing in the EU, which is itself a sourcing improvement for us. They continue to test stronger papers with even better oxygen barriers. An ideal packaging solution for specialty coffee doesn't really exist yet, but it could soon.

A couple more notes:

We've also improved the recyclability of the label stickers that we put on our packaging, and switched to a UK manufacturer. For customers, we're happy to provide free stickers and/or fold-back clips at cost to help you keep your bags closed.

Bigger, 1kg bags are a completely different challenge and we're still working on that too.

Of course, your feedback is vital. We're always open to your opinions, priorities, and experiences. Email us at: info@skylark.coffee.

* The definition of "plastic free" is a minefield to itself. Basically, the inner, shiny layer that helps seal the bag is "semi-aqueous" and thin enough to legally qualify as "not plastic." You can recycle it with normal paper, and this layer won't mess up the process.

** Ask one of us sometime about the compostable coffee bags we bought that were so incredibly biodegradable they started breaking down on our warehouse shelf before we could use them!