Cambio Roasters September 2024 press launch picture. See the authentic right here.
[Note: This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.]
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 for the reason that early 2000s.
Inevitably, this results in quite a lot of trash.
Each cup of java brewed creates a conundrum: what to do with the espresso pod that produced it. To begin, can or not it’s recycled? The reply, in Keurig’s case, just isn’t actually. The corporate’s single-use espresso pods — also called Ok-cups — are fabricated from polypropylene plastic, a fabric that consultants warn just isn’t as recyclable as customers have been led to suppose. Two of the nation’s largest recycling corporations have mentioned they don’t settle for Ok-cup pods, and one environmental group calculated that in the event you lined up all of the Ok-cup pods on the planet’s landfills facet by facet, they would comfortably circle the globe 10 occasions.
A brand new espresso pod firm claims to have developed an answer to Keurig’s plastic waste downside. Cambio Roasters, which launched in September, affords a Keurig-compatible espresso pod that’s made out of aluminum — which, not like plastic, is infinitely recyclable. Cambio is led by a staff 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 identified. “That is, in our view, probably the most thrilling innovation in espresso for the reason that Ok-cup,” mentioned Hartley throughout a launch-day press name for Cambio.
Specialists, nonetheless, aren’t positive that Cambio understands simply how large of an issue Ok-cups pose to curbside recycling programs.
“Actually, plastic is simply not choice,” mentioned Jeremy Pare, a visiting professor of enterprise and atmosphere 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 almost 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 also be a member of the Plastic Air pollution Working Group at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Power, 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 exterior 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 stage.
One other downside is the plastic composition of most Ok-cup pods. Sustainability issues have adopted the Keurig model intently 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 change into Keurig Dr Pepper.) Keurig began promoting Ok-cups pods fabricated 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 may very well be recycled after the foil lid was eliminated and the espresso grounds have been rinsed or dumped out — which resulted in Keurig agreeing to pay $10 million in a class-action settlement. And in September of this 12 months, 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 price.)
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 staff settled on aluminum as an easier-to-recycle various. Aluminum can also be impervious to oxygen, which causes espresso to lose its taste over time. “At any time when we brew a cup of espresso, it tastes precisely because the roastmaster supposed,” mentioned Hartley.
Cambio isn’t the primary single-serve espresso firm to choose to ditch plastic or put money into circularity. Nespresso, a preferred 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 could be fabricated from 80 p.c recycled aluminum, and it claims its international recycling charge 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.”
Nespresso instructs customers to recycle their used espresso pods as is, grounds and all. Smith Assortment / Gado / Getty Photos. Courtesy of Grist.
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 authorised for curbside recycling in New York Metropolis and Jersey Metropolis, the place a chosen 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 robotically resolve Ok-cup pods’ recyclability disaster, consultants say. What actually prevents espresso pods, no matter what they’re fabricated from, from having a second life is their measurement.
After assortment, recyclables are sorted at a facility generally known as a supplies restoration facility, or MRF. MRFs aren’t geared up 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 usually 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 apart from separating” espresso pods from the waste stream “individually, there’s no good strategy to recycle them.”
Cambio’s method 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’ measurement 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 at the moment seem on Cambio’s packaging or web site.)
Cambio says it’s also creating a tool that can make this stacking and pinching of used Ok-cups simpler. “Consider this gadget as a simple manner 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 measurement as a barrier to being accepted and sorted through curbside recycling programs. “Consider the pods like confetti: unattainable to gather again up.”
Cambio disagreed with Dell’s characterization of the swap to aluminum, mentioning that at the moment, 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 guaranteeing Cambio’s compatibility with recycling applications throughout the nation is “ongoing.” The corporate is planning to run checks with MRFs in particular markets “as quickly as possible.”
Essential processing constructing on the Sundown Park Materials Restoration Facility, Brooklyn, New York – 2015. Picture by JelloMistress, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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 “rising choices for recycling them,” together with a soon-to-be-launched program wherein clients will be capable to 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 concentrated on combating plastic air pollution. The last word answer to Keurig’s plastic footprint, she mentioned, is a product that eliminates “the necessity to gather something again from clients,” like a fiber-based pod that may be composted together with the grounds.
Keurig is at the moment testing a plant-based pod format that received’t have any plastic or aluminum, and the corporate expects it to be licensed compostable, in keeping 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 out there on the market, would require a completely 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 begin from zero and have 50 million American households loving their Keurigs. However it’s an enormous raise, and it takes many years.”
In an interview with the Atlantic in 2015, the inventor of the Ok-cup mentioned, “I really feel dangerous generally that I ever did it.” As the marketplace for single-serve espresso brewers grows, so will its affect on the atmosphere, until its merchandise are one way or the other wildly reimagined and redesigned. Keurigs and Nespresso machines are marketed as each handy and splendid, a mixture that’s prone to preserve drawing in new market segments.
However eco-conscious espresso brewers can relaxation simple within the information that you simply don’t want a Keurig or Nespresso machine to brew one cup of espresso at a time; any espresso maker could be single-serve in the event you use solely the water and occasional grounds you really want. No pods required — perhaps only a filter.
[Publisher’s Note: 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 a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org]
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