There’s a Keurig machine in some 40 million households within the U.S. Single-serve espresso brewing programs — which permit customers to make only one cup of espresso at a time by feeding a pod right into a slot and urgent a button — have soared in recognition because the early 2000s.
Inevitably, this results in a variety of trash.
Each cup of java brewed creates a conundrum: what to do with the espresso pod that produced it. To begin, can it’s recycled? The reply, in Keurig’s case, shouldn’t be actually. The corporate’s single-use espresso pods — also referred to as Ok-cups — are manufactured from polypropylene plastic, a fabric that specialists warn shouldn’t be as recyclable as customers have been led to suppose. Two of the nation’s largest recycling firms have mentioned they don’t settle for Ok-cup pods, and one environmental group calculated that should you lined up all of the Ok-cup pods on the planet’s landfills facet by facet, they would comfortably circle the globe 10 instances.
A brand new espresso pod firm claims to have developed an answer to Keurig’s plastic waste drawback. Cambio Roasters, which launched in September, gives a Keurig-compatible espresso pod that’s made out of aluminum — which, in contrast to plastic, is infinitely recyclable. Cambio is led by a crew of former Keurig workers, together with founder and CEO Kevin Hartley, who was beforehand a chief innovation officer at Keurig Inexperienced Mountain, as the corporate was previously recognized. “That is, in our view, essentially the most thrilling innovation in espresso because the Ok-cup,” mentioned Hartley throughout a launch-day press name for Cambio.
Consultants, nonetheless, aren’t certain that Cambio understands simply how huge of an issue Ok-cups pose to curbside recycling programs.
“Actually, plastic is simply not a superb choice,” mentioned Jeremy Pare, a visiting professor of enterprise and surroundings at Duke College’s Nicholas Faculty of the Setting. However even aluminum, with all its advantages, is “nonetheless going to have points.”
A part of the problem of making a really recyclable packaging choice — for nearly any shopper good — is the severely fragmented nature of the American recycling panorama. “There are over 10,000 recycling programs within the U.S.,” mentioned Pare, who can be a member of the Plastic Air pollution Working Group at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Vitality, Setting, and Sustainability. “And but, on the similar time, solely 1 / 4 of the inhabitants has entry to recycling within the U.S.” (Pare lives in a single such neighborhood with no formal recycling program, simply outdoors of Augusta, Maine.) Within the U.S., the query of whether or not one thing is recyclable can solely precisely be answered on a neighborhood degree.
One other drawback is the plastic composition of most Ok-cup pods. Sustainability issues have adopted the Keurig model carefully because it has scaled. (As soon as a small startup, Keurig was acquired by Inexperienced Mountain Espresso Roasters in 2006; in 2018, Keurig Inexperienced Mountain merged with Dr Pepper Snapple to grow to be Keurig Dr Pepper.) Keurig began promoting Ok-cups pods manufactured from polypropylene in 2016, with the objective of making 100% of Ok-cup pods “recyclable” by 2020. However the firm has run into hassle for touting recyclability. In 2018, a California resident sued Keurig for claiming that Ok-cup pods might be recycled after the foil lid was eliminated and the espresso grounds had been rinsed or dumped out — which resulted in Keurig agreeing to pay $10 million in a class-action settlement. And in September of this yr, the Securities and Alternate Fee charged Keurig for falsely claiming the pods “could be successfully recycled.” (Keurig settled the declare by agreeing to pay a $1.5 million penalty charge.)
Hartley, who left Keurig in 2017, knew customers needed a plastic-free Ok-cup choice — and after years of prototypes and testing, he and his crew settled on aluminum as an easier-to-recycle different. Aluminum can be impervious to oxygen, which causes espresso to lose its taste over time. “Each time we brew a cup of espresso, it tastes precisely because the roastmaster meant,” mentioned Hartley.
Cambio Roasters / Chrisman Studios
Cambio isn’t the primary single-serve espresso firm to decide to ditch plastic or put money into circularity. Nespresso, a well-liked single-serve espresso firm that’s owned by the Nestlé Group, has made its capsules out of aluminum for over 30 years. In 2020, Nespresso introduced that its pods can be manufactured from 80 p.c recycled aluminum, and it claims its world recycling price is 32 p.c.
However Nespresso pods solely work in Nespresso machines. As a result of Cambio espresso pods are designed to work with Keurig fashions, Hartley hopes to provide customers what they need “with out having to purchase a brand new brewer.”
Cambio additionally permits customers to peel again the lid and dump out the grounds earlier than recycling. Nespresso pod lids are troublesome to take away, and the corporate instructs customers to recycle their pods as is, grounds and all — however they’re solely authorized for curbside recycling in New York Metropolis and Jersey Metropolis, the place a delegated recycling contractor cleans them out earlier than reprocessing them. (Nespresso customers may mail used pods again to the producer for recycling, or drop them off at Nespresso shops.)
Sadly, swapping plastic for aluminum doesn’t routinely remedy Ok-cup pods’ recyclability disaster, specialists say. What actually prevents espresso pods, no matter what they’re manufactured from, from having a second life is their dimension.
After assortment, recyclables are sorted at a facility often known as a supplies restoration facility, or MRF. MRFs aren’t outfitted to gather small gadgets — a typical rule of thumb is that they’ll’t deal with something smaller than a bank card — and so small objects positioned in recycling bins typically wind up getting despatched to landfills. “The Ok-cups are so small that they fall by way of” the equipment in lots of recycling services, mentioned Pare. “So aside from separating” espresso pods from the waste stream “individually, there’s no good solution to recycle them.”
Cambio’s strategy to working round that is two-pronged. First, the corporate says it desires customers to stack used Ok-cup pods collectively — after which pinch them closed — to beat many recycling services’ dimension necessities. Three or extra used Ok-cup pods ought to create a chunk of aluminum giant sufficient to suit by way of the equipment at recycling services, says Hartley. (These directions don’t presently seem on Cambio’s packaging or web site.)
Smith Assortment / Gado / Getty Photos
Cambio says it’s also creating a tool that may make this stacking and pinching of used Ok-cups simpler. “Consider this gadget as a simple means for customers to bundle cups collectively after which toss into their recycling bin,” mentioned Hartley. He added that the corporate has filed for patents for second-generation Cambio pods that may be “snapped” collectively after use.
Jan Dell, a chemical engineer and an environmental nonprofit founder, mentioned, “I don’t suppose aluminum pods are a significant enchancment,” citing their small dimension as a barrier to being accepted and sorted through curbside recycling programs. “Consider the pods like confetti: inconceivable to gather again up.”
Cambio disagreed with Dell’s characterization of the swap to aluminum, stating that presently, primarily no single-use plastic pods are recycled, whereas aluminum could be endlessly recycled. “To Cambio and customers, these two details are significant.” Hartley additionally shared that the work of making certain Cambio’s compatibility with recycling packages throughout the nation is “ongoing.” The corporate is planning to run assessments with MRFs in particular markets “as quickly as possible.”
In response to a request for remark, a spokesperson from Keurig Dr Pepper mentioned, “We all know our customers need simplicity and fewer waste.” They shared that the corporate has “been lightweighting our pods to cut back the quantity of plastic used,” in addition to “growing choices for recycling them,” together with a soon-to-be-launched program through which prospects will be capable of mail their used pods to Keurig for recycling. The spokesperson additionally mentioned the corporate is “frequently exploring” extra “sustainable packaging” choices.
Dell leads the nonprofit The Final Seaside Cleanup, which is targeted on combating plastic air pollution. The last word resolution to Keurig’s plastic footprint, she mentioned, is a product that eliminates “the necessity to acquire something again from prospects,” like a fiber-based pod that may be composted together with the grounds.
Keurig is presently testing a plant-based pod format that received’t have any plastic or aluminum, and the corporate expects it to be licensed compostable, in accordance with the Keurig Dr Pepper spokesperson. Hartley mentioned he labored on that product for a few years, calling it “an incredible innovation.”
However these espresso pucks, which aren’t but accessible on the market, would require a wholly new machine to run. “It’s going to take a very long time earlier than America goes to throw away 40 or 50 million brewers and purchase 40 or 50 million new brewers,” mentioned Hartley. He added, referring to his time with Keurig, “I received’t inform publicly how a lot cash we spent to start out from zero and have 50 million American households loving their Keurigs. Nevertheless it’s an enormous carry, and it takes a long time.”
In an interview with the Atlantic in 2015, the inventor of the Ok-cup mentioned, “I really feel unhealthy generally that I ever did it.” As the marketplace for single-serve espresso brewers grows, so will its affect on the surroundings, except its merchandise are in some way wildly reimagined and redesigned. Keurigs and Nespresso machines are marketed as each handy and opulent, a mixture that’s more likely to preserve drawing in new market segments.
However eco-conscious espresso brewers can relaxation simple within the information that you just don’t want a Keurig or Nespresso machine to brew one cup of espresso at a time; any espresso maker could be single-serve should you use solely the water and low grounds you really need. No pods required — perhaps only a filter.
