Milk Bottles For Good

 One of Sydney’s favorite bakeries, Bourke Street Bakery, is known for their hand made sourdoughs, cakes and great tasting coffee. What started as a rustic corner store bakery café in 2004, has grown into a global brand with stores right across Sydney and launched their first overseas venture in New York in 2019. Despite scaling to one of Sydney’s greatest success stories in the baking business, Bourke Street has remained committed to operating sustainably by taking part in initiatives such as Ozharvest’s food rescue program and recycling their used milk bottles. 

In early 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and changing hygiene practices, the recycling project collecting Bourke Street’s empty milk bottles ceased collecting their waste. With no collection service available, staff were forced to put the bottles in the recycling bin, which were being collected alongside the general waste and taken straight to landfill. 

When approached by Defy and asked if they would like to be involved in the local recycling project, Bourke Street was keen to participate. The project involved collecting waste from two stores; Alexandria and Surry Hills. With coffee one of their most popular products, the empty milk bottles from each store were producing a significant amount of plastic waste. Defy worked with Bourke Street to collect the empty milk bottles, and installed larger bins when the bottle waste was quickly filling those initially provided. 

With new access to local manufacturers, David McGuinness, owner and cofounder, was excited to collaborate with Defy to create a chopping board, made out of 100% Bourke Street Bakery’s waste. After consultation with the Defy design team, David decided on a minimal design for the chopping board. Resources, time and staff were donated by Defy as part of their contribution to closing Sydney’s waste loop. 

Once the waste had been collected, the Defy team then processed the plastic by de-labeling the bottles, removing the lids and cutting the bottles up in a guillotine. In order to meet food grade standards, the bottles were washed on a hot cycle in Defy’s washing machines. Thanks to funding from the City of Sydney, new washing machines and a shredder meant the Defy team was able to process higher quantities of plastic at a faster rate. 

In order to confirm the colour for the chopping boards, Defy created a series of samples with different ratios of bottles and lids. 95% bottles and 5% lid was decided on before moving into the production phase. Using a sheet press, the plastic was formed into 12mm sheet material. Defy then engaged Box and Dice, a local fabrication business to cut the boards to size and round the edges with a router. 

The process used by Defy ensured the small run of boards could be commercially competitive but equally functional and sustainable. As a result of the project, 100 boards are set to be rolled out across stores in NSW and sold back to Bourke Street Bakery’s customers. 

As a result of the partnership between Defy and Bourke Street Bakery, 277kgs of plastic was diverted from landfill and approximately 98kgs of waste was transformed into circular products. By disrupting the large-scale recycling services, Defy is actively rebuilding local trust in recycling services and has increased the uptake in environmental initiatives across the City of Sydney. Defy remains committed  to closing the production loop within the Sydney ecosystem and is excited to collaborate with more local businesses in the future.