Niagara-on-the-Lake coffee shop used 72,000 plastic bags to create its driveway, patio

With Earth Day coming tomorrow (April 22), a Niagara-on-the-Lake coffee shop is doing its part to live up to those values, such as sustainability and eco-friendliness.

The Balzac’s Coffee Roasters café at 223 King St just unveiled a new outdoor space including its patio and driveway, the surfaces of which are now made from recycled plastic bags.

Approximately 72,000 plastic bags were diverted from landfill and repurposed for the café.

Steve Janzen, General Manager of Balzac’s head office in Ancaster, told Insauga that this was the first of their 17 café locations to set up the eco-friendly surfacing.

“So far this is the only location but certainly will be considered as opportunities present themselves in future. This initial effort grew largely out of circumstance, as traditional parking lot surfaces were not possible here, as the parking lot needed to be permeable,” Janzen said.

Janzen noted the parking area of the Niagara on the Lake Café, which opened in July 2010, is actually lower than surrounding properties “so we could not drain anywhere but down.”

“The owner of the building suggested ecoraster as an option,” he added. “We loved it as it solved the problem of getting us a proper surface, which we could turn a section into patio, obviously important with the realities presented by COVID and the demand for more outdoor seating.”

For the uninitiated, ecoraster is a ground reinforcement system like a grid that retains the natural water retention properties of the ground and creates highly durable surfaces, which can easily withstand car or truck traffic. In this case, it traps the water in place under the surface.

Janzen said the interlocking ecoraster system made entirely of recycled plastics – the equivalent of 72,000 bags – and also eliminates storm water runoff, minimizing pollutants entering area natural water bodies, and reduces the risk of flooding, mitigating that increased potential due to climate change.

“The patio space contains traditional patio stone, held in place by the permeable ecoraster system,” said Janzen.

So why was this important to the coffee company? “Sustainability has always been a cornerstone of Balzac’s, so this was an easy decision once we became aware of it.”