Nespresso, Keurig new coffee pods coming to put end to all the garbage

The success of single-brew coffee systems like Nespresso and Keurig has improved the ease of consuming caffeine at home, but sustainability remains a significant issue.

Companies like Keurig Dr. Pepper and Nestlé-owned Nespresso are working on ways for consumers who get their daily cup of Joe via a single-brew machine at home to reduce waste resulting from the pod approach. Plant-based and paper pods that can be composted are coming to more and more markets.

These efforts are especially important because Americans are heavy coffee drinkers, with more American adults drinking coffee each day than any other beverage, including tap or bottled water, according to the latest National Coffee Data report National Coffee Association Trends. Single-cup coffee makers are the second most popular home brewing method, behind traditional drip coffee makers, and Americans’ ownership of single-cup coffee makers has increased 45% since 2017, according to the National Coffee Association .

Sales of Keurig coffee in the United States reached more than $4 billion last year, while Wall Street analysis puts Nespresso sales at around $1.5 billion. The U.S. market for coffee pods and capsules is expected to reach $10.1 billion by 2028, up from $8.4 billion last year, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence.

Eco-friendly, biodegradable and compostable coffee pods are increasingly in demand and have been present in the market for a few years, such as NEXE, a packaging solutions provider based in Canada, which launched a range of pods of compostable coffee in the United States and Canada. in 2021, which it markets as Nespresso compatible.

Challenges persist, including a patchwork recycling system in the United States, where only 73% of households have access to recycling and only 21% of recyclable household waste is collected, according to the Recycling Partnership’s 2024 State of Recycling Report . You also have to contend with strained supply chains as well as long lead times between product idea generation and time to market. Getting customer buy-in for new products is also a challenge for companies looking to produce more sustainable coffee pods.

“I think these companies are trying to find something that if they don’t end up being recycled — which a lot of them unfortunately don’t — what happens then,” said Dillon Baxter, founder and CEO of PlantSwitch, a materials company. science-based company that offers plant-based alternatives to coffee pod manufacturers. “It takes time and is usually an additional cost so it can impact their bottom line. The transition is not as easy as some people might think.”

Here’s a look at what Keurig and Nespresso – the two largest makers of at-home coffee pod systems – have planned for at-home coffee drinkers as part of this campaign to stop pods from filling up trash cans.

Keurig Dr Pepper’s new plastic-free pod is coming

Keurig Dr. Pepper announced in March that it would launch plastic-free K-Rounds pods. The new pods will be wrapped in a plant-based coating, eliminating the need for recycling, which poses a challenge for the company as it attempts to move toward greater sustainability.

“Where recycling takes place, it’s a great solution,” but because it’s not uniform, it doesn’t completely solve the problem, said Monique Oxender, the company’s director of corporate affairs who oversees the initiatives. of sustainable development.

The decision to eliminate plastic in its pods took about five years, Oxender said. And while beta testing is expected to begin in the fall, there’s no timeline for plastic-free modules to be widely available. “We believe this is the future of the Keurig system, we just want to make sure, before we scale it, that we’ve done it right,” Oxender said.

To use the new plastic-free pods, consumers will need to purchase a new coffee maker, but they will still have the option to brew existing K-Cup pods for a wider variety of flavors. The company expects its new pods to be certified compostable and is currently working on the certification process.

For Keurig, the journey toward sustainability is ongoing. In late 2020, K-Cup pods moved from #7 plastic to recyclable polypropylene, also known as #5 plastic, to increase recyclability options. However, this was not the complete solution. Although No. plastic is considered widely accepted in curbside collection systems in North America, many communities do not yet accept certain polypropylene containers, including coffee pods, for recycling. The company works with individual communities and recyclers so more consumers can recycle their pods in local communities, but that takes time, Oxender said.

Keurig is also working to reduce its overall plastic footprint and incorporate recycled plastic in some breweries. And, later this year, Keurig will offer a mail-in recycling program for K-Cup pods through Keurig.com as an option for consumers who cannot currently recycle these pods in their community.

The compostable paper-based pod from Nespresso in Europe

For its part, Nespresso offers two different ranges of machines using aluminum capsules, which are easily recyclable. “It’s unlike any other material today that can protect the flavor and taste of coffee,” said Jessica Padula, Nespresso U.S. sustainability manager.

Padula says the company has used aluminum for more than three decades because it preserves the taste of coffee well and because not all plastics are recyclable. Nespresso consumers can recycle their capsules with prepaid shipping labels at approximately 88,000 UPS drop-off locations in the United States.

Making it easier for consumers to return pods to the company is the right way to go, says Tom Szaky, chief executive of TerraCycle, a private U.S.-based recycling company that includes recycling of coffee capsules. “When companies invest money to make the effort easy and accessible to consumers through mail-in, local store drop-off, or curbside pickup programs, it increases the likelihood that consumers will recycle,” a he declared.

Curbside collection is the most efficient method, according to Szaky, and in New York, Nespresso has partnered with the city’s recycling contractor to create special equipment that allows consumers to recycle capsules directly from their household trash can. Nespresso has expanded the collection program to Jersey City, New Jersey, starting this month, Padula said.

“If it’s not curbside recyclable or can’t be designed to be, it’s about making a significant investment so that it’s something convenient and accessible for consumers,” said Szaky, whose company works for both Keurig and Nespresso.

Currently, only 43% of households participate in recycling; among those who have access, 59% use their recycling service; and of those that do, only 57% of recyclables are put into recycling containers, according to The Recycling Partnership, which says an efficient system would be 90%.

The numbers for Nespresso are even lower: About 36% of U.S.-based Nespresso drinkers recycle their capsules, according to a company spokesperson.

Recycling issues are why Nespresso is also actively exploring other sustainable options for its pods. The company has tested compostable paper capsules in France as well as in Switzerland, where its coffee is produced. They are home compostable, which has been very well received, Padula said.

The company faces challenges, however, when it comes to recreating that momentum in the United States. Shipping coffee from Switzerland to the United States takes a long time, and aluminum preserves it better and longer, Padula said. The company would like to be able to offer other sustainable options to customers, but not at the expense of taste, she said. “We are actively looking to introduce a paper option in the United States, but it must preserve the quality and taste of the coffee.”