More and more single-serve coffee makers are bypassing recyclable or compostable materials and going straight to plastic-free inserts. Photo credit: Lavazza
People love convenience, and they love coffee, so it’s no surprise that single-serve coffee pods are so popular. They’re in millions of homes, hotel rooms, offices, and waiting rooms. But along with that convenience comes a lot of waste in the form of tiny individual plastic or aluminum containers.
While recyclable and compostable solutions exist, a growing number of companies are looking to eschew pod packaging completely. The latest such innovation is Lavazza’s Tablì, a single-serve brewing system that the company bills as “the world’s first machine using tabs made of 100% coffee.”
A Growing Market and a Growing Waste Problem
Coffee pods are everywhere. The global coffee pod market was estimated at over $40 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to nearly $60 billion by 2030. In the United States, 42% of adults have a pod machine at home, while in the United Kingdom it’s 46%.
To meet this global demand, the coffee industry manufactures billions of pods each year — Nespresso and Keurig produce around 14 billion and 13 billion, respectively. But along with that convenience and scale comes packaging waste. Technically, most capsules can be recycled, but their small size and the materials used — some combination of plastic and aluminum — make that very tricky. The bulk still ends up in landfills.
To address this, there has been an increase in compostable coffee pods, although these aren’t without their issues. Many municipalities don’t offer industrial composting facilities, and a 2022 study found that home-compostable plastics simply “don’t work.”
Enter the Plastic-Free Coffee Pod
Some manufacturers are trying a different approach by eliminating plastic entirely. In 2022, the Swiss retail giant Migros launched CoffeeB, a single-serve coffee maker that utilized “coffee balls,” small spheres of coffee covered with a special seaweed-derived coating. Keurig followed suit in 2024 by announcing Alta, a single-serve system that replaces K-Cups with pressed coffee pucks called K-Rounds (now updated to AltaRounds). In a press release, Keurig’s then-CEO Robert Gamgort called the Alta “a revolutionary new system that will redefine how consumers will brew coffee for decades to come.”
K-Rounds also have a plant-based coating, but Lavazza’s upcoming Tablì system is “pure coffee, nothing more.” The Italian company first launched the plastic-free system in Italy and is now bringing it to the US in August as part of an effort to grow its brand Stateside, Packaging Dive reports. The Tablì required five years of research and development and 15 patents to come to fruition, and pre-orders have already sold out. Lavazza’s North America VP of marketing, Daniele Foti, told Fast Company that the new system aims to bridge the gap between convenience and specialty-grade quality.
The catch with all three of these plastic-free pods is that those looking to try them will need to buy a whole new machine to enjoy them. This will lock customers into the specific brand’s product ecosystem, which may limit their appeal. One of the benefits of single-serve machines is that many are compatible with third-party coffee brands, allowing users to find pods that suit their particular taste. The Tablì website also notes that the tabs themselves come in a protective plastic sleeve.
Whether other brands follow suit remains to be seen. Nespresso’s focus is on the recyclability of its aluminum pods, aiming to reach a 60% recycling rate by 2030, up from its current 35%. What Migros, Keurig, and Lavazza demonstrate, however, is that it’s possible to adapt the single-serve model to a plastic-free future.