Millions of Americans get their morning cup of joe by dropping a small capsule, or pod, of ground coffee into a machine. It’s a fairly popular ritual – nearly 30% of US households own a coffee pod machine, according to a recent report from the National Coffee Association.
But the convenience of these pods comes with an environmental cost: they are typically made from partly- or un-recyclable plastic, which ends up in landfills. It’s something that is starting to weigh on consumers’ conscience, according to Tensie Whelan, director of New York University’s Center for Sustainable Business, and former president of the Rainforest Alliance.
“People love the convenience of the single serving, and they’re going to go for convenience over waste,” said Whelan. “But most people feel guilty about it.”
Some coffee purveyors see that guilt as a business opportunity. Several big brands, such as Keurig, have introduced pods that are partly made with recyclable or biodegradable materials. But these options are still far from ideal. The size and the materials for the different pod components – a plastic cup with a foil lid and paper filter – make them cumbersome to recycle, and biodegradable materials can take many years to break down.
Now, a handful of coffee companies are developing 100% compostable pods to address these challenges. Although both compostable and biodegradable materials break down and transform into something harmless to the environment, compostable pods can undergo this metamorphosis more quickly.
That distinction, a few companies hope, will be enough to woo coffee lovers. Wolfgang Puck Coffee announced last month that it was rolling out compostable pods, which would go into food waste or other compost piles after use. The company was so eager to tout its eco-friendly product, that it got a little ahead of itself. A press release in March claiming that the company had secured certification for using compostable materials turned out to be premature, a company spokeswoman told the Guardian, adding that Wolfgang is still undergoing the certification process at the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI).
Wolfgang’s eagerness reflects the competition among coffee sellers to set themselves apart among eco-conscious customers. Currently, Canada’s Club Coffee is the only company whose pods are certified by BPI. Dean’s Beans, an organic coffee purveyor in Massachusetts, is developing a compostable pod, which it hopes to ready for the market within the next six months, according to Dean Cyon, the CEO..
Which pod to rule them all?
The difference between biodegradable and compostable may not be apparent to consumers, and the subtle distinctions could make the new pods a hard sell. “Compostable materials are biodegradable, but not all biodegradable materials are necessarily compostable,” says Kartik Chandran, a professor of environmental engineering at Columbia University and a recent MacArthur genius fellow.
Biodegradable refers to any material that will disintegrate in water, soil or air over time with the help of organisms like bacteria and enzymes. This can happen quickly or it can take years, Chandran said.
Compostable also refers to a material that breaks down and returns to nature, but it has to turn into something that improves the nutrient levels of the soil, like soil conditioners or mulch. It also has to do so relatively quickly, at the same rate as the materials with which it is being composted, like food waste or yard trimmings, according to the US Federal Trade Commission.
But there is currently no legal requirement for how long this decomposition should take, only an industry standard set by the American Society for Testing and Materials. It stipulates that materials must break down completely in six months or less in a commercial compost facility.
Coffee pod makers can turn to BPI, the only compostable product certification group in the US, to verify their claims and market a seal of approval. For a product to be certified, the material must disappear from view in less than 84 days and be completely gone within 180 days, as measured by the amount of organic carbon converted to carbon dioxide, said Rhodes Yepsen, executive director of BPI. The resulting compost is then tested for any heavy metal residue.
Switching to compostable pods can be costly, said Yepsen. There’s the expense of developing a new type of packaging. Compostable materials are also pricier than conventional plastics, which are produced on a mass scale, he said. And, to remain competitive, companies don’t tend to pass on the added cost to consumers. Wolfgang Puck said its new pods won’t be more expensive and will sell for $0.60 per pod. Organic Coffee Company’s biodegradable pods cost around $0.53 per capsule, while a Keurig pod retails for around $0.62 per serving.
Cycon from Dean’s Beans said it’s been long and complex process to bring a compostable pod to market.
“We’ve been working on this for about eight years with so many false starts,” he said. “Every material we try we need to test in different soil and compost situations, so it takes a long time even just to rule out a material.”
His compostable pods will be made of an agricultural waste or byproduct, although Cycon is waiting until the pods are ready for sale before revealing the exact material. He said the pod should hold up when used in any typical single-serve machine, and the new material shouldn’t affect the taste of the coffee.
“The plant fibers we’re using have no added taste when subjected to boiling water, so we haven’t had any aftertaste problems to date,” he said. “And, no, the pods won’t degrade right before your eyes in the Keurig machine either!”
While the emergence of compostable pods is good news, there’s no assurance that the used pods will end up in a compost pile, said Nina Goodrich, executive director at GreenBlue, a nonprofit that advocates the use of sustainable materials. Trash collectors don’t typically require homeowners to put compost-worthy trash into its own bin.
“The challenge is creating the infrastructure to collect and compost them,” she said. “We will have to build a much better composting network that includes food waste and compostable packaging.”
Alison Moodie
