In the United Kingdom alone, approximately 95 million cups of coffee are consumed daily, with more than one-third of British coffee-drinkers admitting that they dispose of their coffee capsules into trash bins. Roughly 20 billion non-biodegradable, one-cup coffee pods end up in landfills. But Italian espresso giant Lavazza is offering a more eco-friendly alternative — a compostable coffee pod.
Non-biodegradable coffee pods are a challenge to recycle because a single capsule is comprised of a mix of materials, including aluminum, foil and especially plastic. Plastic takes up to 500 years before it begins to disintegrate.
Lavazza, meanwhile, is now offering more sustainable coffee pods, called Eco Caps, that are biopolymer-based. In contrast to the non-biodegradable coffee pods, Eco Caps take just six months to degrade. These pods are convenient to dispose of in the food waste bin, depending on your local composting rules.
Lavazza has partnered with TerraCycle, a waste collection service that specialized in hard-to-recycle items, to make it easier for Eco Caps to be industrially composted if local composting is not available. The TerraCycle partnership was formed to solve the issue of consumers being generally confused about what can be recycled.
Compostable and biodegradable coffee pods are becoming a trend. For instance, online retailer Haloalso offers a separate range of compostable pods that are made with paper pulp and sugar cane.
“The coffee revolution has happened, and one of the key challenges the industry now faces is the millions of tons of waste created as a result,” explained Richard Hardwick, Halo’s co-founder. “Aluminum and plastic coffee capsules are difficult to recycle, so most of them end up in the bin. And that’s why up to 75 percent are currently being sent to landfill every minute. Most people don’t understand the irreversible damage these coffee capsules are inflicting on the planet.”
Biodegradable coffee pods are now available for composting [Inhabitat]