Going Circular - Why We Use Steel Cans – Wavelength Coffee Roasters

There are many variations of so-called “sustainable” bags in use today, including recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable options. But here's the ugly, sad truth: the vast majority of all coffee bags, regardless of material and after just a single use, end up in a landfill or simply burned. On top of that, most are not very good at doing the primary job of protecting the coffee inside.

What's a roaster to do?

When we first began Wavelength Coffee Roasters, we knew that choosing our packaging was going to be a major decision. It's a big investment for a small company like ours, and although it's not permanent, it's something you have to be happy with for a while.

So we took the leap and decided on custom-printed steel cans. Here’s why.

Steel is circular.

First off, let's acknowledge that there are no silver bullets when it comes to sustainability. And what makes a solution good or bad often depends on how you define the problem. For us, we wanted to avoid single-use packaging that ends up in a landfill and instead use a material that could be endlessly reclaimed and reused for its original purpose - we wanted circularity.

Unlike plastic, steel is infinitely recyclable. About 90% of all the steel ever produced is still in use, which can be attributed to the fact that it's easy to separate from other waste with magnets and its market value is relatively high. Recycled steel requires about 75% less energy to process than virgin steel, and steel cans are recycled at a higher rate (72%) than any other form of food packaging. Our cans come from Container Supply Company, a California-based business since 1948 that uses 100% domestically recycled steel, so we keep our circular loop as short as possible.

Coffee bags made of compostable materials, especially bioplastics, are widely promoted as a sustainable option, but the reality is far less rosy. These materials must be sent to industrial composting facilities, not backyard heaps, to break down correctly, which only a tiny fraction of people have access to. Instead, virtually all “compostable” bags end up in landfills where they decompose anaerobically and emit methane, 28X more potent than CO2 at warming the planet. Even if they do make their way to an industrial facility, these materials add nothing to the nutrient mix and can pollute the compost with chemicals and microplastics. Until there is significant improvement, we say no thanks.

You know what to do with it.

The recycling infrastructure for metals is robust and widespread - it’s been a profitable business for decades. Virtually every community has access to metal recycling centers, which is part of the reason that steel (72%) and aluminum (67%) have the highest recycling rates of all food packaging. It’s obvious, intuitive and ubiquitous.

Plastic recycling, on the other hand, is wildly confusing even for engaged consumers, and minimally effective at best. Although the LDPE (#4) used for some "recyclable" coffee bags is technically recyclable, only 5% actually is, and most of that is the rigid form often used for milk jugs. Coffee bags are made of plastic film, which must be sorted separately from other plastics so it doesn’t clog shredding machines. And the multi-material laminated film used in most coffee bags cannot be municipally recycled at all. It’s sad that plastic recycling is so popular with consumers when virtually all plastic, recyclable or not, ends up in landfills.

We know anecdotally (and personally) that this is a source of frustration for many coffee drinkers. And packaging manufacturers are paying attention - the number of “compostable” or “recyclable” bag options has grown substantially in recent years, even though (as noted above) they are minimally effective at best. Packaging coffee in steel cans is nothing new - ask your grandparents - but it's one of those old-fashioned ideas that we think is worth bringing back into fashion.

It’s an ideal home for coffee.

Light, heat, moisture, and especially oxygen are the sworn enemies of roasted coffee. Once the beans have stopped off-gassing CO2, about 3-4 days after roasting, they will start to oxidize. This is why the most important feature of coffee packaging is an effective vapor barrier. Our steel cans are completely air-tight and seam-sealed within hours of roasting, with a one-way valve in the lid that lets the beans off-gas but keeps oxygen out. This keeps our coffee fresher for longer than most bagged coffee.

Plastic film is actually a pretty lousy vapor barrier, only slightly better than a plain paper bag. Coffee bag manufacturers compensate by laminating a thin layer of aluminum foil into the plastic layers, which does reduce oxygen transmission but also renders it virtually unrecyclable.

Another concern for many is food contact with “forever chemicals” and other compounds commonly found in plastics. Even most aluminum cans are lined with a thin plastic film, which has lately caused issues for the beverage industry. And although flavored coffees do require a plastic lining, our steel containers (with their single-origin contents) do not.

You can reuse it.

One of the main tenets of circularity is that it’s best to keep materials in use for as long as possible, especially if they can be used over and over again for the same purpose. We will encourage our local customers to bring back their cans to be refilled, including a discount, extending the life of the packaging as long as they want.

What's the catch?

True, steel cans aren't perfect. Every decision involves tradeoffs. And while most we knew ahead of time, there were some tradeoffs that revealed themselves along the way.

The most obvious one is that cans take up WAY more space than bags. As of this writing, and as far as I know, there are no viable nesting can solutions, which means that during shipping and storage the volume they take up is mostly air.

We are fortunate to have a sizable storage space on site so this isn't a huge problem for us (though still not ideal), but we know that isn't the case for many small operations.

One thing we didn't fully appreciate at first is that the custom-printed can industry, at least domestically, is built for very high volume orders, on the scale of tens of thousands to millions of units. This is because high speed and efficiency are needed to help keep the individual unit costs down. Unfortunately, this means high minimum-order quantities, or MOQs, which can be too much for most small and startup roasters to swallow. It also means that turnaround times are currently very long; we waited about 3 months between when the order was placed and our cans showed up. But with interest rising from the coffee sector, we know that companies like CSC are actively pursuing options to help reduce these minimums, hopefully making steel a viable option for more roasters.

And while it's literally a small thing, we don't love that the peel-off vented lid is made of plastic composite film. It's the only part of the can that currently isn't recyclable. Luckily, the folks at CSC are already working on a solution; a 100% aluminum version is in the pipeline and should be available for us to use in 2026. We had a chance to demo a few of these new lids at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) Expo in Houston this year, and they look very promising.

It's all a work in progress.

All packaging is inherently wasteful, and there is no perfect solution. We also respect that what works for us may not be the best option for everyone. But we don't see that as a reason to simply give up, but instead as a challenge; how good can we make it? For our business, our community, and our planet? We feel pretty good about our packaging now, but that won't stop us from looking for better options that could help further reduce waste while still providing a superior experience. Until then, challenge accepted.

Cheers!