Local coffee roaster adopts biodegradable plastic bags

Larry's Beans is a Raleigh coffee roasting company already renowned for its environmental sensibilities.

Its coffee is all fair-trade, shade-grown, and organic or transitional organic. It's roasted in a Gavin Street warehouse that's been "green-o-vated" with natural daylighting, reclaimed timbers, edible landscaping, and water-efficient toilets. It's delivered across the Triangle in a funky old school bus that's been converted to run on veggie oil. Larry's website even offers a "Sustainability School" with information and tips on everything from alternative energy to conserving water.

Now the company founded by Larry Larson has taken another step to protect the planet.

Larry's Beans has adopted new packaging for its 12 oz. and 1 lb. coffee bags using state-of-the-art plastic "bio-bags" that degrade in landfills, commercial composting facilities, and even backyard compost piles. The innovative technology was developed here in North Carolina by Maverick Enterprises of Monroe.

The bio-bag is made from petroleum-derived plastic, but it includes an additive that helps microorganisms break it down in the soil, according to Larry's website:

We're no soil scientists, so we checked out that these claims have been tested to ASTM 5511 criteria the "standard test method for determining anaerobic biodegradation of plastic materials under anaerobic high-solids conditions." (ASTM is the American Society for Testing and Materials.) EPA tests have also shown that no dangerous chemicals or toxins are left in the soil once the bags are dirt.

Larry's acknowledges that using plastic derived from petroleum is not ideal, but points out that there are also drawbacks associated with other plastic alternatives. For example, the corn plastic used in some of the company's to-go mugs is energy-intensive to produce, and it must be sent to commercial composting facilities to biodegrade.