There are some Keurig machines available. 40 million households in the United States Single-serve coffee brewing system This allows consumers to brew one cup of coffee at a time by feeding the coffee pod into the chamber and pressing a button. It has grown in popularity significantly since the early 2000s.
This inevitably leads to a lot of waste.
Every cup of brewed coffee poses a conundrum: what to do with the coffee pods that produce it? First, are they recyclable? The answer, in the case of Keurig, is actually not so. The company's single-use coffee pods Also known as K-cups, they are made from polypropylene plastic. which is a material Experts warn that it cannot be recycled. As consumers are led to think Two of the nation's largest recyclers say they no longer accept K-cup pods, and one environmental group calculated that if you placed all the K-cup pods in the world's landfills side by side, they Will comfortably orbit the earth 10 times.–
A new coffee bean company claims to have developed a solution to the plastic waste problem of Keurig Cambio Roasters, which launched in September. Features Keurig-compatible coffee pods made from aluminum. Unlike plastic, it can be recycled indefinitely. Cambio is led by a team of former Keurig employees, including founder and CEO Kevin Hartley, who was previously Chief Innovation Officer at Keurig Green Mountain. I knew you before. “In our view This is the most exciting innovation in coffee since the K-cup,” Hartley said during the Cambio launch press conference.
However, experts aren't sure Cambio understands the huge problem K cups pose to curbside recycling systems.
“Plastics really aren't a good choice,” said Jeremy Pare, visiting professor of business and the environment at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. But even aluminum which has all the benefits “There are still problems.”
Part of the difficulty in creating truly recyclable packaging options For all types of consumer products is the highly fragmented nature of recycling in America. “The U.S. has more than 10,000 recycling systems,” said Pare, a member of the Plastics Pollution Working Group at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. “And at the same time, Only a quarter of the population has access to recycling in the United States.” (Pare lives in a community with no formal recycling program outside of Augusta, Maine) In the United States, this question, whether something can be recycled or not, can only be answered with precision at the local level.
Another issue is the plastic composition of most K-cup pods. Sustainability concerns closely follow the Keurig brand as it scales up. (Once a small startup, Keurig was acquired by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in 2006. In 2018, Keurig Green Mountain merged with Dr Pepper Snapple to become Keurig Dr Pepper.) Keurig began selling K-cup pods. Made from polypropylene In 2016 with the goal of Makes the K-cup pod 100 percent capable “Recyclable” by 2020, but the company has had trouble convincing itself about recycling. In 2018, it was resident in California. Sue Kirik K-cup pods are claimed to be recyclable after removing the foil lid and washing or pouring out the coffee grounds, resulting in Keurig. Agrees to Pay $10 Million in Class Settlement– And in September this year The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Keurig with making false pod claims.”Can be recycled efficiently– (Keurig settles claims by agreeing to pay $1.5 million fine)
Hartley, who left Keurig in 2017, knew consumers wanted a plastic-free K-cup option, and after years of prototyping and testing He and his team decided on aluminum as an easier option to recycle. Aluminum is also not resistant to oxygen. This causes the coffee to lose its flavor over time. “Whenever we make a cup of coffee, It will taste exactly as the roaster intended,” says Hartley.
Cambio isn't the first single-serve coffee company to go plastic-free or invest in circular systems. Nespresso, the popular single-serve coffee company owned by the Nestle Group, Made capsules from aluminum. for more than 30 years– In 2020 Nespresso announced that it will produce pods from 80 percent recycled aluminumand claims that the global recycling rate is 32 percent–
But Nespresso pods only work with Nespresso machines. Because Cambio coffee pods are designed to work with Keurig models, Hartley hopes to give consumers what they want. “Without having to buy a new beer brewing machine”
Cambio also allows users to remove the cap and empty it before recycling the Nespresso pods. The cover is difficult to remove.And the company recommends users recycle the pods as-is, logical and all – but they will be approved for curbside recycling in new york city and jersey cityThey are cleaned by a designated recycling contractor before they are reprocessed (Nespresso consumers can also return used pods to the manufacturer for recycling). or you can send it to a Nespresso store)
Unfortunately, replacing plastic with aluminum does not automatically solve the K-cup's recyclability crisis. experts say What really prevents coffee pods from coming back to life? is the size of the coffee pod No matter what it's made of.
After collection Recycled materials are sorted at facilities called material recovery centers, or MRFs. MRFs are not equipped to store small items. The general principle is that they cannot handle anything at all. Smaller than a credit card — and small objects put in recycling bins often end up being sent to landfills. “K-cups are so small they fall through” machines in many recycling plants, Pare says. “In addition From separating “coffee pods from garbage” one by one, there is no good way to recycle them.
Cambio's approach to tackling this issue is twofold. First, the company says it wants consumers to stack used K-cup pods. Then squeeze it closed. To overcome the size requirements of many recycling plants, three or more used K-cup pods should create a piece of aluminum large enough to fit through machinery in the recycling plant, Hartley said. (These are not yet listed on Cambio's packaging or website.)
Cambio says it is developing a device that will make stacking and squeezing used K-cups easier. “Think of this device as an easy way for consumers to bundle glass together and toss it in the recycling bin,” Hartley said. He added that the company has filed a patent for second-generation Cambio pods that can “snap” together after use.
Jan Dell, a chemical engineer and founder of an environmental non-profit, said: “I don't think aluminum pods will be a significant improvement,” citing their small size as a barrier to their acceptance and sorting through curbside recycling systems. “Think of pods like confetti: impossible to keep in reserve.”
Cambio disagrees with Dell's characterization of the switch to aluminum. By pointing out that at present There is basically no recycling of single-use plastic pods. While aluminum is infinitely recyclable, “for Cambio and consumers, those two facts are meaningful,” Hartley says. “Ongoing” The company is planning to conduct trials with MRF in specific markets “as soon as possible.”
In response to a request for comment, a Keurig Dr Pepper spokesperson said, “We know consumers want simplicity and less waste.” They shared that the company has “Reduce the weight of our pods to reduce the amount of plastic used” as well as “increase recycling options,” including a soon-to-launch program where customers will be able to mail in pods for Keurig to be recycled. The spokesperson also said the company is “continuing to explore” additional “sustainable packaging” options.
Dell leads the non-profit organization The Last Beach Cleanup, which is focused on fighting plastic pollution. She said the best solution to Keurig's plastic footprint is a product that eliminates “The need to collect anything returned from the customer” such as fiber-based pods that can be composted along with the soil.
Keurig is currently testing a plant-based pod format that does not contain plastic or aluminum. And the company expects to receive certification that it is biodegradable. According to a Keurig Dr Pepper spokesperson, Hartley said he has worked on the product for many years. By calling it “Amazing innovation”
But these coffee beans are not yet available for sale. The entire machine must be replaced. Running “It's going to be a long time before America scraps 40 or 50 million brewers and buys 40 or 50 million new brewers,” Hartley said. He added, referring to his time with Keurig, “I'm not going to tell the public how much we spent to start from scratch and have 50 million American households love their Keurig, but it's a step up. big And it takes decades.”
In a 2015 interview with The Atlantic Inventor of the K-cup said, “Sometimes I feel bad for doing that.” It is a market for Single-serve coffee maker The environmental impact will also grow. Unless the company's product has been rethought and redesigned to the best of its ability. Keurigs and Nespresso coffee makers are marketed as both convenient and luxurious. This is a combination that is likely to continue attracting new market segments.
But eco-conscious coffee makers can take comfort in the fact that you don't need a Keurig or Nespresso machine to make one cup of coffee at a time. Every coffee maker is single-serve safe if you use only the water and coffee grounds you really need. There's no need for a pod – maybe just a filter.
This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/why-its-so-hard-to-create-a-truly-recyclable-keurig-coffee-pod/– Grist is an independent, nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org–