White Coffee Corporation has introduced a new line of single-serve organic coffees in a new BioCup that is completely biodegradable when aerobically composted.
Consumers committed to sustainable packaging will have a large selection of blends and flavors, the company says. These certified organic coffees evoke nature and the environment with earthy, deep and aromatic flavors. The BioCup is available in 11 flavors: Colombian, Breakfast Blend, French Roast, Full City Roast, Mexican High Grown, Peruvian, Rainforest Blend, Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Sea Salt Caramel and Chocolate Morsel.
Recent years have seen an explosion of popularity for single serve coffee cups. According to the Seattle Times, "sales of coffee made in single-serve brewing systems, barely noticeable five years ago, now account for more than a quarter of every dollar Americans spend on coffee to drink at home. By 2018, market-research firm Mintel expects consumers to spend nearly as much on coffee pods as they do on bulk coffee."
However, as demand for single-serve coffee cups has grown, so have concerns over how to dispose of them in an eco-friendly manner. Due to their mixed-material make-up, single serve coffee pods are not easily recyclable, and brands that do offer a recycling service have few recycling points and limited collection service. An estimated 9.1 billion single-serve coffee and drink cartridges—some 19 million cubic feet of waste—end up in U.S. landfills each year. According to the National Coffee Association, more than a tenth of U.S. households (12 percent) own single-cup coffee brewers, and that number is on the rise.
The BioCup is not the first biodegradable single serve coffee cup. In late 2013, Rogers Family Company announced it had developed a single-serve coffee product that is 97 percent biodegradable. While the filter is the product’s only non-biodegradable part, a forthcoming new mesh filter will render it waste-free. Also in 2013, UK-based Biome Bioplastics said it had developed a new biodegradable coffee pod.
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Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Jan 6, 2015 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET