STiR coffee and tea magazine

56 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 2, 2018 (April / May) Capsules Plastic single-use capsules are not easily recycled, not marine compostable, and definitely not yet green By Dan Bolton ressure on the packaging industry to develop easily re- cycled coffee capsules continues to build as brands con- front an increasingly impatient core of consumers. While coffee consumption increased to 64% of U.S. adults in 2018, the highest since 2012, household penetration of single- cup brewers declined slightly in both the U.S. and Canada. Unit sales growth slowed to 1.6% in 2017 in U.S. grocery and mass market outlets, but Keurig and private-label K-cup compat- ible rivals will still manufacture more than 10 billion single-serve capsules in 2018. (See Single-Serve Slows, December 2017). Sustainable packaging is a rapidly growing industry, already nearing $400 billion globally, with demand for single-use con- tainers of coffee, yogurt, cereal, and snacks increasing. All evoke pushback with Generation X and Millennials, the most vocal cohorts (and the globe's most financially powerful consumers). In March legislation was introduced in Canada mandating that all single-use pods sold in British Columbia be compostable. Municipalities and their waste management contractors would be required to accept pods as green waste. Ontario is debating similar legislation and in the US several cities are considering fees, fines and outright bans to reduce plastic waste. Single-cup brewers are remarkably advanced compared to 1998. Single-origin and unique premium quality coffee for both Keurig and Nespresso brewers is now commonplace (consider Nespresso's 100% Robusta Uganda expresso capsules or Green Mountain's Costa Rica Paraiso from Keurig). So why hasn't the plastics industry developed a "green" single-serve capsule? Not yet green Switching from polyethylene to polypropylene enabled many coffee brands using K-Cups to label their products "recyclable" once the coffee is removed and the plastic is shredded. LBP's UpShot Solution was the first to market a recyclable polypropyl- ene that can be mixed with other #5 plastics. Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee offers the RealCup, a recyclable polystyrene #6 cup and the Eco-Cup (except filter and lid) can be recycled at two-thirds of the municipal systems in the US once disassem- bled by users. Ring style capsules made of plant-based plastics have been certified compostable in landfills by the Biodegrad- able Products Institute (BPI) but do not decompose in water. Club Coffee offers a BPI certified PurPod capsule made from coffee chaff. "The main problem we see with rings is the capsules do not have a high barrier, so it will need to be put into a barrier bag or wrapped in a material that is recyclable or compostable," writes Philip Angus, director of business development at ICA USA "We are working on recyclable bags with zippers for ease of functionality. ICA could fill and count 20 Nespresso style bio capsules into a re-closable standup bag," said Angus. "The compostable K-cup pods are wrapped individually and then can be put into a bag or a display carton," he said. The current shelf life of a pod in a carton box is 10 months. Pods in a barrier bags with gas flush would have a 24-month shelf life, he said. Robert A. Melikian, president of ABCD (Automatic Brew- ers and Coffee Devices) a private label capsule fill and pack manufacturer near Philadelphia, uses LBP capsules and is close- ly monitoring the development of a new plastics. The cost of sourcing and assembling exotic raw plastics, filter materials used in making capsules, and air-tight lids is a growing concern as the marketplace puts downward pressure on retail prices that today average less than 40-cents per serving. Single-serve alternatives include coffee bags "steeped" in the cup and paper filter pods. Virgin Hotels recently began ordering 20-gram fractional packs for use with a pour-over filter "adding a little romance for guests who like pouring," he said. Another concern is that environmentally friendly materials are outpacing the processing capabilities of most landfills, Melikian explains. California no longer permits brands to label capsules biodegradable or compostable regardless of materials since virtu- ally all the capsules that are discarded end up in landfills. P

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