You know that great smell that tickles your nose when you walk into a coffee shop? The wonderful aromatic smell of roasting beans? Well, if you are a resident of Safed, Israel – where the Elite coffee factory is located – that sweet smell is currently mingled with the harsh odor of the shale oil used to power the factory. Thus destroying the great scent.
How is the coffee factory going green?
But not for much longer. The factory is going green, using its beans not only to make great coffee but to power the plant as well.
Large furnaces that were recently installed will burn the leftover coffee beans at high temperatures to create steam that will serve as alternative energy.
Until now the leftover beans have been mostly buried or sold as fertilizer and livestock feed – a solution that is better than tossing them into a landfill but that still requires many trucks and lots of gas.
How does using biological waste cut down air pollution?
By using the leftover beans to create energy the factory will cut down on air pollution and also reduce shale oil consumption by 50%.
Pini Kamari, the Vice President of the Strauss Elite Company, explained that: “This creates a direct connection between being ‘green’ and being efficient. Motivation for the change came from our desire to cut costs, reducing energy costs and transportation costs for both the shale and the waste.
“At the same time greenhouse gas emissions will be much lower, both from the smokestacks and from the trucks. We will create less waste and need to bury less garbage. Noise will also be reduced.”
The Strauss Elite initiative may be coming at a good time for the city of Safed, which is trying to change its environmental image. The new mayor, Ilan Shochat, recently established an environmental affairs committee that will promote recycling and river preservation.
Read more about other green coffee:
Tel Aviv’s LovEAT Loves to Drink Organic Coffee
Perach Rafian’s Cupocket Handles Your Hot Drinks with Care
Coffee Grinds
Coffee Break
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Would love to read if this project actually happened. The news came out, the PR person from the company declined to talk about it – and that's it. My feeling is that it's a PR stunt so the community in the north stops complaining about the coffee smell…
Leftover coffee beans doesn't only generate pleasant smell for factories but also it can be used as an energy to power factories.