EU, coffee in the crosshairs: capsules will be packaging and treated as such

Brussels – For some a pleasure, for some a necessity, for everyone or almost everyone a daily habit. Synonymous with breakfast, awakening, or a simple break, coffee accompanies domestic and working life. Thanks also to new machines with pods and especially capsules, for which the European Union has a real revolution in the pipeline. There is too much coffee break waste, estimated at 98.495 tons in the EU alone, which adds to the already excessive packaging waste in the twelve-star territory. Hence the need to take the necessary steps to remedy what is considered a bad habit.

To date, the packaging and packaging waste directive does not consider capsules as packaging, but this is expected to change with the proposal that aims to amend the directive and elevate it to regulation. This paradigm shift, explains Environment Commissioner Virginius Sinkevicius, “will enable producers to make investment decisions that allow for better sorting and subsequent recycling.” Because, the commissioner explains in the response to a parliamentary question on the matter, the coffee container is a small mine of substances useful to the environment and beyond.

The European Commission has realized that coffee grounds contain “valuable plant nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen that can be used to enrich the soil instead of being incinerated.” They are thus a resource for the soil, also from an agricultural perspective. Still, there are in the small round-shaped packaging “other valuable secondary raw materials of which capsules are made, such as aluminium, “which is useful for industrial and production processes. That is why “composting both the capsule and the material in it would be the most environmentally beneficial option.” And that is why, Sinkevicius again points out, the proposed regulation on packaging and packaging waste includes “a requirement” that coffee capsules be compostable. Standing by the principle that “packaging should be compostable when it would facilitate the separate collection of organic waste,” as stated in the proposed regulation submitted to stakeholders, it is noted that pods or capsules made with aluminium are no longer sustainable. As the Environment Commissioner acknowledges, aluminium “is not easily” recoverable. In the case of capsules, because they are dense, small objects that are not well captured by optical waste collectors, and in any case, rigid plastic is not accepted in many European composting facilities. That’s why “coffee requires a packaging material other than aluminium.” Fear not, the home or office coffee revolution will have no economic repercussions. It is not a matter of compelling anyone to change equipment, the EU commissioner is keen to point out. “Compostable coffee capsules are already commercially available, therefore, once the requirement comes into effect, no replacement of existing machines will be necessary.”