Toronto-based Club Coffee has placed a $50 million bet that its PurPod100 single-serve capsules will be the first capsules to be certified 100% biodegradable.
The renewable PurPod100 is made of bio-plastics with a Keurig-compatible ring that is manufactured from coffee chaff—the skin of the coffee bean shed during the roasting process. The capsules, designed to brew coffee, cocoa, cider and tea, are undergoing the final stage of certification by the Biodegradable Products Institute, an independent non-profit certifier whose assessment of compostability is widely accepted by municipalities and waste processors. BPI subjects products to test conditions identical to landfills and recycling programs. Results are verified by NSF International prior to certification.
“Every single part of the PurPod100 is designed to be digestible by bacteria,” said Club Coffee c.e.o. John Pigott who worked with the University of Guelph to develop the capsules. “As a large manufacturer and distributor of packaged coffee, we have a responsibility to our customers, and to society, to reduce the environmental impact of our activities,” he said.
Club, a leading provider of private label coffee, has invested $50 million in construction of a fill and packaging facility that attracted a commitment from Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA to package its Hills Bros. Coffee, Chock Full o’Nuts, and Kauai Coffee brands in PurPod 100 capsules. Boyd’s Coffee and Paramount Coffee as well as Copper Moon will use the pods for coffee and chai beginning in Q4 of this year.
“Many organic residuals and food scraps, such as coffee grounds, continue to be disposed of in landfills, rather than being diverted to commercial compost manufacturing facilities where they can serve as part of a valuable feedstock,” according to US Composting Council director of market development Al Rattie
“The creation of a certified, fully compostable coffee pod would be welcomed by those commercial compost manufacturing facilities that are permitted to accept such residuals,” adds Rattie.
“Science shows that composting is an effective and conscientious solution to this growing environmental problem. Recycling isn’t a convenient or well-developed solution because hot pods full of coffee grounds must be carefully separated and cleaned before collection. And biodegradation is too slow of a process, taking centuries to break down the billions of pods in landfills,” said Pigott.
Learn more at: www.clubcoffee.ca/compostable
-- Dan Bolton