EcoBarista is an Australian-owned business that says it has carved out its own niche in supplying sustainable, eco-friendly packaging to roasters and cafes all over the country, servicing customers such as Industry Beans, Reuben Hills, St Ali, Stitch Coffee, Pablo & Rusty, Bear Bones and Marvel Street. PKN spoke to founder, Zac Fryer, about what differentiates the company in the sustainable packaging space.
“EcoBarista was born 10 years ago after I saw a lot of people within the coffee industry grappling with how to take their business in a sustainable direction. Packaging was a big part of that struggle for them. Our vision has always been to support our industry with really sustainable, responsible solutions, and to innovate in that space,” Fryer explains.
“It’s about conscious packaging that’s made with coffee in mind, to honour the planet, the growers, the roasters, the makers and the end consumer. I think by focusing on coffee and resisting the urge to become a one-stop-shop for everything, we’ve been able to build strong relationships with our customers and deliver very high-quality products,” Fryer says.
The question is though, with so many options out there, what makes EcoBarista stand out in such a crowded space?
“There's a lot of great eco packaging solutions out there. Yes, our packaging is great quality — it's tested, and where applicable, it's certified (certified compostable). I think what makes us unique is that coffee and packaging sustainably is our focus and has been for over ten years,” Fryer tells PKN.
“Back when we began, there weren’t many packaging companies exploring the sustainability space, just like there weren’t many companies whose priority was how to sustainably package their products,” Fryer continues, adding that this meant the company was able to build relationships and work in an innovative and agile way with customers.
Fryer goes on to say that in his experience, a lot of packaging companies sell via distributors which, while being efficient, is not the model he was aiming for.
“For us, really great results come when we can work closely with cafes and roasters to co-create solutions to their needs and design packaging that's able to meet the expectations of roasters and cafes, ensuring the integrity of their coffee while reducing the environmental impact of single-use packaging on the environment at the same time,” Fryer clarifies.
EcoBarista says it designs its products by first considering end of life, and favouring plant-based materials that can be composted and returned to the earth or recycled at a bare minimum. The business sees its role as not just providing eco packaging to its customers but helping them align with the 2025 National Packaging Targets.
“We also see a big part of our job being to help our cafe and roaster customers to educate their end consumer on how to compost more, recycle better and how to properly dispose of their cups and bags once they’ve consumed their products. Because if the end-consumer isn't equipped with knowledge, what we’re doing is just good marketing.”
Fryer tells PKN that this means having conversations about sustainability more broadly with clients, to understand what roadblocks they're having, and how to communicate progress effectively on a regular basis.
“We’re always making sure we’re across the latest news in relation to the 2025 National Packaging Targets so we can help make sure our community is informed about their obligations, and often in our social content we unpack different issues or unconventional approaches to producing coffee packaging that's more environmentally friendly.”
The company’s range includes coffee cups, lids and bags, including a rapidly renewable coffee cup lid which is made purely from sugarcane and is able to be home composted after use, as well as the recently added home compostable coffee bags, which are verified by TÜV Austria’s OK Compost HOME certification programme.
“We love coffee, and we believe that to sustain our industry and the planet that makes it possible, we need to be really conscious about the way we package it. While this sounds like a weird thing for a packaging company to say, eventually single-use packaging as we all know it shouldn’t exist. We hope to continue to innovate to revolutionise what packaging looks like for the coffee industry and beyond,” concludes Fryer.
