Peterborough Reuse

Repur­pos­ing hes­si­an bags in Peter­bor­ough
THE CHALLENGE

Mas­teroast, the inter­na­tion­al cof­fee man­u­fac­turer based in Peter­bor­ough, pos­ted their busi­ness chal­lenge on Brain­wave Innov­a­tion Portal of how to divert large quant­it­ies of cof­fee sacks from land­fill.

 

THE SOLUTION

After spot­ting a chal­lenge on Brain­wave Innov­a­tions and the sup­port of Peter­bor­ough DNA, Pav Patel and Gary Graves came up with the idea for Peter­bor­ough Reuse — a busi­ness mod­el that repur­poses these hes­si­an bags.

 

THE STRATEGY

In keep­ing with Smart Fengate’s drive towards long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity, Peter­bor­ough Reuse will con­trib­ute towards a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy by reusing the waste cof­fee sacks as mulch for use in tree plant­ing, riverb­ank rein­force­ment as part of flood pro­tec­tion schemes, and a range of tex­tile products such as shop­ping bags. Each year, the organ­isa­tion is sav­ing approx­im­ately 40,000 cof­fee sacks from going to land­fill.

 

THE RESULTS
  • Res­cued to date 42,200 sacks (1 years amount)
  • On 10th June 2015, Peter­bor­ough Re-use were awar­ded £10,000 to deliv­er a pro­ject to reach out to Ladies in the deprived areas of the city to learn a new skill that will help them become bet­ter employ­able.
  • 60 ladies went through the pro­gram and have been able to employ 20 ladies on a part time basis work­ing from home.
  • Man­u­fac­tured over 4600 lined bags, 2000 unlined bags, 800 log bags for PECT pro­ject, 400 Envir­on­ment Agency river pro­ject.
“The ambition for Peterborough Reuse is to create a friendly, local hub where people can come to recycle their unwanted belongings. We are currently looking at other waste issues in Peterborough and are working with the council to develop new ways of reusing waste within the city.
Peterborough DNA has created space for thinking differently, and trailing new things. This is business, public sector agencies and communities all working together.”
Pav Patel, co-founder of Peterborough Reuse