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[1] Cambio’s aluminum K-Cup: totally recyclable for the same price as plastic (photos #1, #2, and #4 © Cambio Roasters).
[2] Aluminum pods are airtight. Unlike with plastic pods, the flavor and aroma won’t evaporate six months after they’re packed..
[3] The result: a rich, aromatic cup of coffee (photo courtesy SXC).
[4] There are eight varieties of coffee, plus a mixed “variety pack.”
[5] The number of K-Cups in landfill could wrap around Earth 11 times (photo © The Story Of Stuff).
[5] Nespresso, the aluminum pioneer, introduced aluminum coffee pods in 1986, shortly after launching the company. In 1991 it began a recycling program and in 2020 began using 80% recycled aluminum for the pods. By the end of 2022, it was 95%. But until Cambio, there was no aluminum K-Cup-compatible pod (photo © Nespresso).
[6] The forthcoming Keurig Alta shown with a totally-compostible K-Round (photos #6 and #7 © Keurig).
[7] K-Rounds require no container. The ground coffee is wrapped in an algae sheet that is tossed or composted with the spent grounds.
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National Coffee Day is September 29th, and Cambio Roasters’ 100% recyclable aluminum K-Cups (photo #1) are part of our celebration.
Cambio was founded by Kevin Hartley and Ann Hutson, executives from Green Mountain Coffee, the corporate owner of Keurig.
The Keurig brewer is a big success, owned by 42% of American households. In 2021, there were more than 25 million Keurig brewers in homes and offices across the U.S—plus other brands† that use Keurig-compatible K-cups—producing a fast, good cup of coffee along with a ton of plastic waste [source].
If you stacked the number of plastic pods Americans throw out every day end-to-end, they could cover nearly the distance from New York to Miami. It would only take about 20 days for that stack of pods to stretch the full circumference of the earth [source].
Cambio set out to create a recyclable alternative. Not only are the aluminum capsules and lids recyclable, but it’s easy to tear off the lid and compost the grounds.
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WHY TURN AWAY FROM PLASTIC K-CUPS?
Since 2018, when China got out of the business of recycling offshore plastic, there has been no recyling of the polypropylene K-Cups in the U.S.
In 2022, a Greenpeace study found only one facility in the U.S. that recycled K-Cups. It may no longer be around (we couldn’t find it).
The global footprint of coffee capsule waste is currently about 576,000 metric tons—the combined weight of about 4,400 school buses.
Most recycling facilities, called material recovery facilities (MRFs), are not equipped to sort items smaller than 7.5 centimeters. A K-cup diameter is 5 centimeters.
Even if a box of pods says the plastic is “compostable,” check the small print. You’ll find that recyclability is “not available in all locales.”
The reason K-Cups are made from plastic is because it was the material used during the R&D phase. They remained in plastic due to global standardization and economics. No one in the business was thinking of plastic waste at the time.
WHAT’S AN ENVIRONMENTALLY-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER TO DO?
After lots of R&D, Cambio created the world’s first aluminum pod for Keurig and any K-Cup-compatible coffee brewers.
The pods are now available online, with a variety pack on Amazon and a full line on the Cambio website.
They’ll be rolling out at retailers nationwide, and are now arriving at select Walmart stores in the Southeast.
Nespresso has long used aluminum capsules, and Woken Coffee, makes Nespresso-compostable, biodegradable fiber pods. But Cambio is the first aluminum K-Cup that’s compatible.
> Check out the coffee varieties below.
Is There Anything Else On The Horizon?
Envipods, Fabula, San Francisco Bay Coffee, Tayst, and others already make compostable, biodegradable fiber K-Cups. But they are porous—not best for maintaining the freshness of the coffee inside.
But the Keurig brand has teased the arrival of a Coffee B, a new generation of brewers and pods made by Delica Switzerland.
Keurig will have exclusive North American and Mexico rights to their next-generation technology, which places the coffee into a new creation called K-Rounds.
The K-Rounds eliminate the need for any kind of container around the ground coffee. They are made from a proprietary, protective plant-based (algae) coating. They can be disposable of or composted along with the leftover coffee grounds.
Is it coming anytime soon? Maybe next year, maybe beyond.
BWhenever it arrives, it may be 10 years before a significant number of the Americans who own Keuring and K-Cup-compatible brewers will be willing to throw away their brewers for a Coffee B system.
No release date has been announced, but Keurig is market-testing its Keurig Alta brewer (photo #6), which is expected to accommodate K-Cups and K-Rounds. So if you do want to drink “green,” look for one when you need to upgrade your current machine.
Cambio means change in Spanish, and the company’s hope is that people will trade non-recyclable plastic pods for aluminum Cambios.
It’s one of the little changes you can make to help save the planet.
VARIETIES OF ALL-ORGANIC CAMBIO K-CUPS
Cambio sources raw beans directly from the coffee farmers, and roasts them back home.
All beans are arabica, grown at elevations of 23,500 and higher elevations between the Tropic Of Cancer and the Tropic Of Capricorn.
The “menu” has choices for everyone:
Dark Roast: French Roast, Special Dark, Sumatran
Medium Roast: Columbian, House Blend, Decaf
Light Roast: Hazelnut, Donut Blend
A bonus: Unlike the coffee in porous plastic K-Cups, which lose their potency after six or eight months, airtight aluminum pods are 100% impervious to oxygen, moisture, and light. Cambio pods will give you a vibrant, fresh-tasting cup, no matter how long you’ve had them.
A bigger bonus: All-organic Cambio pods cost the same as K-cups from Dunkin, Green Mountain, Peets, and Starbucks—and less than organic coffee from those brands. And they’re substantially less expensive than than Newman’s Own organic plastic K-Cups.
And maybe the biggest bonus: With a mission similar to Newman’s Own, 20% of profits go back to help the farming communities. The small coffee farming families are struggling and food-insecure, many living without electricity and running water.
Cambio Roasters donates to Food 4 Farmers, which helps needy communities.
WHAT PLASTIC WASTE DOES TO THE PLANET.
Approximately 42% of American households own a Keurig, and consumption in the U.S. alone is expected to surpass 32 billion K-Cups® annually. As of 2021, about 121 million Keurig K-cups were being used daily in the U.S.
By 2025, the global market for the K-Cup and other types of coffee pods/capsules is anticipated to be worth more than $29 billion.
While popular in North America and Europe, market research predicts that coffee pods will soon spread to markets in Asia, particularly to China and South Korea.
As the market for coffee capsules is growing, waste grows with it.
Some 95% of plastic K-cups and other plastic pods will clog landfills for 500 to 1,000 years before decomposing [source]. Recycled plastic pods more expensive and less sturdy than virgin plastic.
More than 90% of aluminum is infinitely* recyclable (usually into cans). Approximately 70% of all aluminum ever made is still in circulation and recycled aluminum is as good as virgin aluminum. Recycled aluminum is also cheaper.
Recycled aluminum saves roughly 95% of the energy it takes to produce new aluminum. This explains why recycled aluminum makes up 80% of America’s aluminum production.
Take the next step. Even if you only use one pod a week, make it Cambio.
A cup of great coffee doesn’t have to come at the expense of the planet.
> The history of coffee.
> The different types of coffee: a photo glossary.
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*Infinite means the aluminum can be recycled again and again, with no loss of properties.
†Amazon Basics, Bonsenkitchen, Cuisinart, Famiworths, Hamilton Beach, and Ninja brands, for example, use K-Cups.
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