Starbucks stores in Japan are repurposing waste coffee grounds into compost and animal feed for farmers who supply foods back to the stores.
Under the company’s Recycling Loop program, 28 farmers repurpose used coffee from stores in Kanto and Kansai to help produce vegetables, green tea, and milk, which is incorporated into signature beverages in the cafes, such as lattes. A new menu range will highlight those products to customers.
“We set ambitious goals to become a resource-positive company, and we continue to explore innovative ways to bring our partners and communities together around the shared desire to protect the planet,” said John Culver, group president, international, channel development and global coffee, tea & cocoa. “Launching a new closed-loop menu is another way to give our customers in Japan more options to enjoy lower-impact and locally-sourced ingredients as part of their Starbucks Experience.”
There are three new menu items on the Loop menu:
- Matcha Cream Bar, a blondie cake bar featuring matcha green tea powder, paired perfectly with luxurious white chocolate.
- Root Vegetable Chicken Salad Wrap, which has been given a green twist with matcha powder kneaded into the tortilla dough to create a wrap featuring carrots, lettuce, and chicken.
- Whole Carrot Cake, a limited-edition five-inch whole carrot cake available exclusively online from June 23. Starbucks describes it as “a fragrant combination of carrot, fruit, and spices, topped with creamy frosting and a generous sprinkle of nuts”.
Starbucks launched a recycling program with farmers across South Korea in 2015, which produces a range of packaged food items that it sells in its stores. The company also runs the Grounds for Your Garden program across various markets around the world including the US and Indonesia, providing customers with used coffee grounds from stores to use as garden fertiliser.
