ActiveCoffee

July 6th, 2009 – Green Mountain Coffee made the popular Keurig Single-Cup brewing system, in which a bit of coffee is sealed in plastic and can be popped cleanly into a single-serve coffee maker. Does it make sense to put fair-trade coffee in a disposable petroleum-based package?

Of the coffee shipped around the world by Green Mountain Coffee (GMC), 27% is currently fair trade certified and that number is increasing. they have partnered with Newman’s own Organics to widen the market for fair trade coffees and by putting fair trade coffees in their popular K-Cup®s they say they are popularizing fair trade and helping coffee growing communities. In some of their other products, 19% of the bags are made from the corn-based bio-plastic, PLA, they cut their solid waste by 19% by composting organic waste from production process. part of their fleet runs on biodiesel. GMC offsets 100% of their direct greenhouse gas emissions and they also partner with non-profits such as Heifer International, and provide grants focused on poverty reduction.

K-cups however, are petroleum based plastic, with a layer of polyethylene coating an interior filter paper and an aluminum foil top. It keeps the coffee fresh, but makes recycling impossible. Small though the cups may be they are big business, with GMC reporting that 2.5 million K-Cup® s are brewed every day. K-Cup® s were about ½ of their net sales as last year.

On the sustainability of their operation GMC states, “we understand that the impact of the K-Cup® waste stream is one of our most significant environmental challenges.” they have commissioned a lifecycle analysis to compare drip brew to K-Cup®s, but if they already know it is a significant challenge, in a product line representing half of their sales, it is notable that no other information on alternatives or reasonable goals are available except a statement that they “are working to identify the right definition of environmentally friendly.”

People have the choice to buy the reusable filter model (although it got bad reviews for durability), but assuming that their convenience-loving customers like the no fuss product, but also care about issues like fair trade, why is such a connected company not moving faster on this high impact issue?

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Can Disposable Single-Cup Coffee be Sustainable? Green Mount