Did you know most coffee beans are packed in burlap bags, a woven fabric made from the jute plant? Coffee shops often throw empty bags “away,” even though the woven fabric is soft and durable.
Enter Rescue Recycle Reuse (also known as R3), the nonprofit organization rescues coffee sacks from local coffee roasters and shops in Los Angeles, CA, and upcycles them into reusable bags that are 100 percent compostable.
Watch how they do it in the video below.
R3 Founder Suzanne Titus sees their reusable bags as a beautiful plastic pollution solution.
“Plastic bags are everywhere,” says Titus. “We see plastics as we drive down the freeway. Hundreds of thousands of plastic bags are used around the world every day, and plastic is not good for our Earth or ourselves.”
R3 has made over 3,500 bags since 2012 and has sold them to gift shops, grocery stores, and college book stores. New in 2019, the bags are now available online.
Titus is thrilled with the success of the bags, and says she will continue to rescue coffee sacks, create bags, and donate profits to environmental organizations, fulfilling the R3 mission.
