Bletchley Park breaks coffee recycling code with help from Cawleys

In partnership with bio-bean and leading local recycling business, Cawleys, it is dedicated to making a real improvement to its environmental credentials.

With more than 280,000 annual visitors, Bletchley Park in its first month has recycled 25Kg of coffee grounds, accounting for around 550 cups of coffee.

In an effort to improve its waste management and take advantage of Cawleys pioneering recycling solutions, Bletchley Park embarked on the initiative to recycle its coffee grounds and cups with Cawleys at the beginning of August.

Phil Atkins, head of site works at Bletchley Park, said: “Bletchley Park has always pioneered ground breaking technology, so we wanted to ensure this is carried across to all areas of the business.

"With Cawleys help and advice we were able to identify what the most effective systems were to improve our recycling rates. Not only have they supported us through the implementation process, Cawleys continued communication and customer service has been fantastic.”

As part of Cawleys Infinity recycling programme, Bletchley Park will benefit from a dedicated service from the local recycling firm. Cawleys will provide special caddies to store coffee grounds as well as collect segregated coffee cups, card, paper, plastic bottles and cans.

Cawleys’ partnership with bio-bean, an award-winning clean technology company, means it can help organisations in the region, such as Bletchley Park, turn coffee waste into advanced new products.

Creating a second life use for a material is considered the ultimate solution to drive the circular economy, where waste resources are turned into new materials. Under this new partnership, coffee grounds can now be collected and recycled into Coffee Logs.

Each Coffee Log is made from the grounds of 25 cups of coffee and burns twenty per cent hotter and longer than kiln-dried wood. Recycling coffee waste generates eighty per cent less emissions than sending it to landfill.

As well as coffee grounds, Bletchley Park is also recycling all of its disposable single-use coffee cups. After collection, the cups are processed through a pulper to break down the fibres. Once this process is complete, the material can then be used in other forms of packaging.

Bletchley Park’s initiative to adopt Cawleys waste system, ‘Infinity’, is just the start of the heritage attraction’s environmental journey and it is aiming to further improve its recycling rates of other materials too.

The team at Bletchley Park will separate waste at the point of disposal, using specialist recycling containers. By segregating waste early on, such as cardboard and metal, there is less contamination between streams and this will allow Cawleys to extract more valuable resources from the sites waste.

“We’re constantly reviewing our customer feedback and its very clear consumers are increasingly concerned with companies’ responsibility when it comes to its waste management,” Phil added.

To find out more information on coffee recycling and collection visit: www.cawleys.co.uk