Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/581281
50 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 5, 2015 (October/November) Unveiling the Possibilities for Coffee Chaff During the roasting process coffee beans expand shedding a protective skin that is dis- carded as chaff. Over the years chaff has been used by farmers and gardening centers but it is essentially waste that must be removed from the facility. After exhausting the list of conventional materials that are typically used to make bio plastics (corn, starch, sugarcane), the team at Club Coffee began testing PLA blended with chaff which has some unique properties. "As it turns out, it makes an excellent compostable plastic," said Claudio Gemmiti, Club Coffee's senior v.p., innovation and strategic growth. Club discovered that coffee chaff is a fibrous material that loves water. In a moisture laden environment, it grabs and retains water making it a lot easier for the microbes to attack and break down products. "At a microscopic level it makes it really easy for the bugs to get at it," said Gemmiti. He said there were many iterations of the compostable ring "before we found the right combination that we use in our PürPod100 today. Adding coffee chaff to the plastic ring used in the PürPod100 hastens its journey from cup to compost." Coffee chaff marks only the beginning for Club Coffee's venture into seeking alter- native uses for products that were previously considered waste. "Simply by asking questions and having an open mind, we are uncovering opportu- nities to repurpose what was traditionally considered waste and find ways to put it back into the manufacturing process and packaging," said Gemmiti. In the future he foresees more and more key players discovering ways to convert garbage into gold. Close up of coffee chaff Capsule filling equipment sealed to prevent oxygen from staling coffee. PürPod100 paper lid Discovering new materials was critical but the Pür- Pod100 could not slow their fill lines or increase the price of Club Coffee's single-serve capsules. Major investment The company, which operates a 70,000 sq. ft. roasting and filling plant, invested $50 million in a new 85,000 sq. ft. single-serve facility to offer the only BPI certified, 100% compostable capsule on the market. "The punch line is: we are ready to go," said Gemmiti, "The PürPod100 is a com- mercial product." Roasters agree. Massimo Zanetti announced in April it would switch its Hills Bros., Kauai Coffee, Segafredo Zanetti, and Chock Full o'Nuts brands to PürPod100. Portland, Ore.,-based Boyd's Cof- fee and Copper Moon Coffee in Lafayette, In., also switched. A leading retailer in Canada is pre- paring to convert their private label brands over to compostable pending municipal approvals. Retail- ers and brand owners across North America are queuing up to access the PürPod100 technology, said Gemmiti. The next hurdle is curbside. The wide range of pods available on the market has led some mu- nicipalities to worry about compost contamination as consumers attempt to compost capsules that aren't BPI certified and are NOT compostable. "We've been working on getting the mu- nicipalities to agree that our cups can go into the green-bin (or brown-bin in some municipalities) program and that's been the most challenging part of this," said Gemmiti. "The fastest way to gain composting access for consumers in Canada is through the curbside collection programs which already exist," he says. Appearance is another concern. "Most people look at this product and say that's an ugly duck- ling compared to the standard single-serve pods with hard plastic cups. But we take it and say, that ugly duckling is different and it looks different, and that's what we are going to leverage when we communicate with people," according to Gem- miti. "The brown ring with the soft pod is the one that is 100% compostable and BPI-Certified. That one goes in your green bin." Company representatives are literally knocking at the door of municipalities across North Ameri- ca, seeking acceptance into composting programs. They argue the PürPod100 is an ecological option available now and a good reason for every munici- pality to get on board. The way Club Coffee sees it, the entire single- serve market could shift to compostable capsules. Twenty billion is a lot of capsules to convert but a practical and proven compostable capsule will put tremendous pressure on others in the industry to do the same.