Member Article

Bio-bean Bolsters Broderick’s Grounds-Breaking Environmental Action Plan

Manchester-based Broderick’s is rolling out a ground-breaking environmental scheme in partnership with bio-bean. The vending and luxury refreshments business is the first independent in the North West to send coffee grounds to bio-bean to be recycled into innovative, clean bio-fuels.

Broderick’s flagship coffee bar at Manchester Airport’s T2, along with its First Street café, have begun collecting all spent coffee grounds to be recycled by bio-bean into Coffee Logs, thanks to early adoption of the bio-bean scheme. bio-bean is the first company in the world to industrialise the process of recycling coffee grounds into biofuels.

Over its first year operating the scheme, the Broderick’s Manchester Airport café alone will generate enough waste coffee grounds to produce over 4,000 of bio-bean’s Coffee Logs, which can be used to power stoves, wood burners and chimineas. The Coffee Recycling Company, part of Lavelle waste, will be collecting the grounds from Broderick’s cafés on a weekly basis.

Broderick’s will also be developing an offer to its trade customers, with local garden centres and coffee shops already expressing strong interest in selling the Coffee Logs.

John Broderick, managing director of Broderick’s, commented: ’‘I’m really excited by the power of this environmental project. We’ve always had a reputation for being at the vanguard of environmental and social responsibility: Broderick’s was the first vending company to achieve the prestigious ISO14001 environmental management accreditation – nearly 20 years ago, and we were an early supporter of Fairtrade Coffee. We continue to passionately bang the drum for causes we believe in.

’‘Coffee waste is such a hot topic at the moment – and for good reason: the UK throws away 500,000 tonnes: much of which is sent to landfill. I’m looking forward to getting our neighbouring businesses in the thriving First Street District and at the airport involved – there’s so much scope for us to work together to reduce waste, and make our leftover coffee grounds a force for good. We’ll certainly be fuelling our own workplace as well as our bodies with the coffee we produce!’’

Sue Hodnett, responsible for environmental management at Manchester Airport, said: ’‘We’re delighted to have such a forward thinking, environmentally conscious refreshments partner on board in T2. Broderick’s bio-bean coffee grounds project is a great initiative and we’re looking forward to helping them further reduce the environmental impact of their operation by joining in our own food waste recycling programme that we are currently rolling out across the airport.’’

George May, Chief Commercial Officer at bio-bean, said: “I’m thrilled bio-bean is partnering with Broderick’s and Lavelle Waste to recycle spent coffee grounds from Manchester Airport. With the proliferation of coffee shops across the North West, bio-bean can help hundreds more businesses in the region save money and cut their CO2 emissions.’’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Williams .