New products and initiatives are making coffee capsules easier to compost or recycle.
Single-serve coffee capsules (a.k.a. pods) proved a success with consumers when they first appeared in the 1990s, and their popularity has increased phenomenally since that time. But they have long posed challenges for both coffee brands and municipal waste collection systems. How can pods be disposed of or recycled efficiently and with low impact on the environment?
At first, many companies made their pods from polystyrene or polypropylene plastic. But soon they shifted to aluminum, a material that can be recycled as many times as wanted, but each time takes lots of energy.
Then came polylactic acid (PLA), hailed as “biodegradable.” But its decomposition works best under controlled conditions in a commercial composting facility. When dumped in a river or sea or buried in a landfill, PLA breaks down slowly like other plastics. And when it does, it creates microplastics.
Convenient recycling
Recycling would be preferable, but the single-serve industry has not yet developed a strong and ubiquitous system fully integrating suitable recycling facilities, convenient drop-off sites, and mail-in collection.
To be sure, Nespresso and many other coffee companies have developed significant programs. So have communities, independent retail stores, and other businesses. But more and more consumers are shopping for sustainability, and existing initiatives have not yet evolved into an effortless and comprehensive system.
A better and more efficient solution could be to integrate individual collection and recycling systems so that they complement one another. Curbside collection should be prioritized so that consumers don’t need to accumulate used pods for weeks or months before dropping them off or mailing them in.
Fortunately, just such a service is emerging in the United Kingdom, and it could serve as a blueprint for programs in other countries. Podback Ltd. is a non-profit organization that is backed by Dolce Gusto, Nescafe, Nespresso, and Tassimo.
Rick Hindley, executive director, told delegates at a recent industry conference in Barcelona that even though 20% of U.K. households use a coffee pod machine at least once per week, purchasing 2 billion coffee and hot beverage pods per year, some 35% of these consumers were not aware that spent pods can be recycled, according to a government survey.
The poll found that 9 out of 10 respondents want to be able to recycle their coffee pods through their usual household recycling services, i.e., collected curbside. So that’s what Podback aims to do. The NGO, whose members comprise pod manufacturers with a combined 80% share of the U.K. market, offers local authorities full funding to collect used pods at the curbside.
Curbside service
“Our vision is that by 2026 half of all U.K. households have access to curbside coffee pod collections,” Hindley said. To facilitate this, Podback’s members distribute recycling bags free of charge. For example, their online platforms ask customers at check-out if they want bags included with their order. To increase participation, members are publicizing Podback on their websites so that customers can identify recycling options in their area and register for curbside collection on the NGO’s website, podback.org.
Podback also maintains some 6,500 drop-off points across the U.K, but curbside collections are its priority. Hindley said that the NGO has already partnered with nine local authorities, giving 550,000 households access to curbside pod collection. A further 771,000 households have access to pod collection at household waste recycling centers operated at the municipal level. The Podback system aims to be flexible enough to fit already existing curbside collection models. Podback covers all operational costs to keep its service cost neutral for local organizations.
Next-generation materials
Other initiatives, such as by Terracycle, an international recycling company, are also good. But they rely on a high level of participation and cooperation by stakeholders – manufacturers, government, NGOs, and consumers – with all operating at very high efficiency. That is not always attainable, and a substantial proportion of recyclables are not captured by the system.
That’s why it’s important to develop and implement use of pods that decompose naturally and completely, without needing special facilities for composting.
Such materials already exist, but so far they have only been adopted by a handful of coffee companies. Of note is Solinatra (solinatra.com), a material developed and trademarked by the Netherlands-headquartered Rosiro Group BV. Solinatra performs and feels like traditional plastic. It can be injection molded and used for many of the purposes for which the world still relies on conventional plastics. Food storage containers and lids, disposable cutlery and tableware, and indeed, single-serve coffee capsules, are among many applications for Solinatra and similar “next generation materials.”
Making farm waste useful
One advantage of Solinatra is its ingredients: agricultural waste products. It therefore does not rely on crops needed for food or livestock feed. By contrast, PLA is commonly produced from starchy or sugary plants like beetroot, sugar cane, corn, and others used for food.
“Solinatra uses agricultural by-products and food manufacturing waste as key components, including spent grain, used coffee grounds, rapeseed, or evening primrose shells after their oils have been pressed,” Simon Girdlestone, co-founder and global technical lead of Rosiro Group BV, told STiR. And unlike PLA, which is derived through a relatively complex process of fermentation and polymerization, Solinatra is a compound material made of plant parts and plant-based resin binders, which combine to create a unique chemical structure.
It is precisely this chemical structure that enables the material’s most important feature. Solinatra is truly compostable, completely degrading in any environment in a matter of weeks and months rather than decades or centuries. And without disintegrating into microplastic particles. The exact decomposition timeframe depends on the discarded item’s thickness and the environmental conditions to which it is exposed.
“Our tests showed that a coffee capsule in home composting degrades in the same time as a banana peel, or in around 90 days,” Girdlestone explained. One reason is because capsules have thin walls. Moreover, because coffee pods are subjected to hot water during brewing, the decomposition process is kick-started by the product’s use.
Legislative pressure
There are different versions of Solinatra, and one has a barrier grade specifically developed for making coffee pods. “It can be used to produce single-layer capsules with OTR [oxygen transmission rate] and WVTR [water vapor transmission rate] properties and can be processed in standard injection molding machines and production lines,” asserted Girdlestone. The material’s ability to decompose naturally makes it easy for consumers to dispose of the product correctly and responsibly.
“Used capsules can go directly to a home compost bin or be included with food waste collection,” Girdlestone said. If Solinatra lives up to its claims and becomes more widely used in capsules, it might take pressure off existing schemes for collection and recycling.
The unique coffee pods have already made an appearance in the U.K. Various local coffee companies have been utilizing them for some time now, and businesses in the Netherlands soon will follow, according to Girdlestone.
The timing couldn’t be better. A European Union proposal to revise the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR) directive states that certain packaging items — such as coffee pods — must henceforth only be manufactured with compostable materials. If put into effect, the revised legislation would practically force non-compostables, including polypropylene and aluminum, off the market. It might also put pressure on use of industrially biodegradable materials such as PLA. “We very much expect to see innovations in compostable materials continue to revolutionize the industry,” predicted Girdlestone.
SBWerks Makes Pods from Cellulose and Starch
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Another next-generation material approach is the “green” coffee pod by Smile Compostable Solutions, a subsidiary of U.S.-registered Smile Beverage Werks LLC (SBWerks). It recently received CMA-I and CMA-W certification from the Compost Manufacturing Alliance. Compatible with Nespresso Original brewers, the pod passed in-vessel and windrow testing, making it the first-ever coffee capsule in the United States to receive both certifications. The product also was certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI).
The plant-based pod is explicitly not produced from PLA. “It is made using a patented formula of cellulose and starch,” said Allyson Trice, SBWerks marketing manager. The company has developed a home compostable version as well. “The home compostable pods are made with the same material, the only difference being that they have less of an oxygen barrier than our commercially compostable pods,” Trice explained. SBWerks home compostable pods can be disposed of in the food waste bin or kitchen waste bin.