Coffee wastewater treatment project tackles climate change

Latin America produces around 70% of the world’s coffee and is the continent where 31% of the world’s freshwater resources are located. However, coffee production generates a great amount of wastewater that is regularly released untreated into rivers, affecting aquatic fauna and flora as well as downstream communities. Coffee wastewater also produces organic waste and has a high toxicity, affecting the soil and generating considerable amounts of greenhouse-gas emissions, particularly methane, heavily contributing to climate change.

As part of the project, coffee wastewater treatment systems and solid-waste treatment mechanisms were installed in eight coffee farms in Nicaragua, ten in Honduras and one in Guatemala. The project, which used 50% less water, generated a significant amount of biogas and prevented the release of greenhouse-gas emissions. The biogas powered both coffee mills and households and therefore prevented local deforestation of native trees as families could replace firewood with domestic gas stoves. 

Due to the environmental and economic impact the Energy from Coffee Wastewater project had within Latin America, UTZ Certified is now introducing it within Peru and Brazil, and hopes to get further funds to do the same within Africa and Asia.

“Coffee production is only environmentally sustainable when water is used efficiently and polluted water from the wet-mill process is treated. Local ecosystems do not have the capacity to clean the large amounts of contaminated fluids,” said Han De Groot, Executive Director at UTZ Certified. “Rural communities and coffee production depend intrinsically on a ready supply of fresh water. So if we want to talk about coffee produced in a sustainable manner then wastewater must be treated when released into the environment.” He concluded.