It has been estimated that the market of coffee capsules and pods represents the 8% of the value of the global consumptions of coffee. Capsules and pods present substantial advantages related to the coffee conservation and practicality of use. Nevertheless, they show several problems caused by higher environmental impacts respect to the traditional coffee machines.
With reference to the environmental impact related to coffee capsules, the “French Environment and Energy Management Agency” (ADEME) estimates that a 250 g capsules box produces 10 times more than the quantity of packaging produced by a pack of 250 g of coffee beans and that the final price paid by the consumer is around the 60% higher.
The market leaders in this sector have created a closed system, based on patented coffee machines that, when they were launched, were compatible only with their own model of coffee capsules or pods.
Nowadays, most patents expired and only cover the internal system to brew coffee with capsules. For this reason, a parallel market of compatible coffee capsules has grown in the last years, giving the consumer the possibility to choose among different typologies of coffee. While reducing the price for a cup of coffee, the compatible capsules did not solve the environmental issues. In order to try to address the environmental problems, some biodegradable compatible disposal capsules have been launched in the market. This kind of capsules did not reduce the environmental impacts as well, as at their end of life, they are still collected as unsorted waste. This is mainly due to the difficulties and costs to separate the packaging from the used coffee grounds. In addition, biodegradation is a process that requires many years, and then in many cases the capsules are burned before.
Having read this, do you think that technology is really improving our way to make and taste coffee? Does the comfort produced by coffee capsules really worth the environmental price we are going to pay?
