Giving New Life to Our Jute Bags Through the Circular Economy

Did you know? Since 2018, every one of our jute bags has found a second life.

We’re on a mission to shrink our environmental footprint. That’s why Café William is proud to give every one of our jute bags a second life through circular economy.

We’re among the first companies in Eastern Townships, Quebec, to build industrial partnerships based on the principles of industrial ecology.

Our jute bags are what our green coffee (unroasted beans) arrive in. And since we’re one of Canada’s largest importers of organic, Fairtrade coffee, you can imagine that we go through a lot of them every single day! Thanks to an industrial symbiosis project launched by Synergie Estrie, our jute bags are now being revalued. In other words: what used to be waste is now helping others grow, literally. That’s the beauty of the circular economy.

Our partner in this project is ArborInnov, a company that specializes in planting and nurturing high-value plants and use our jute bags to help them thrive: the fabric blocks weeds and creates the perfect environment for healthy growth.

But that’s not all. ArborInnov also harnesses the natural power of certain plants and fungi to capture or break down pollutants in contaminated soil. By wrapping the roots of their young plants in our jute bags filled with rich, nutrient-packed soil, they can give new life to land that was once too damaged to support growth. In the past, ArborInnov had to import these bags from Asia. Now, they source them just 20 km away.

Thanks to this partnership, more than 60 tonnes of waste are diverted from landfills every year, while both companies significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, we avoid producing over 73,000 kg of CO₂ annually; that’s the same as 60 round-trip flights from Montreal to Paris!

Fewer raw materials. Less energy. Shorter distances. A smaller footprint with bigger savings on both sides.