Eco-friendly single-use coffee capsules | Sustainability and Environment | Biodegradable and compostable
The environmental awareness and eco-sustainability of products, increasingly popular among consumers worldwide, has focused over the years on the production and recycling of coffee and soluble capsules.
Coffee capsules are affordable and perfectly suited to the needs of the modern consumer, both in terms of convenience and product quality, yet their impact on the environment is a matter of concern.
According to some studies, almost 10 billion coffee capsules were sold worldwide in 2018, and on average it takes 150 to 500 years for a plastic or aluminium coffee capsule to decompose, which is definitely too high to consider this market sustainable, in the absence of an efficient recycling system.
When we talk about sustainability and environmentally friendly approaches, in addition to recycling, we introduce terms such as biodegradability and compostability of products.
Biodegradability is undoubtedly one of the most important parameters for determining the environmental impact of a product.
Difference between biodegradable and compostable
But when can a product be considered compostable? Which features should it have to have in order to make it environmentally sustainable?
A compostable product is necessarily biodegradable, but not the opposite.
In fact, in order to be compostable, a product must comply with the criteria defined by the European standard EN 13432, under industrial composting conditions.
The values contemplated by the standard concern primarily the decomposition rate of the product, but also the particle size, the quality of the compost obtained and the stability of certain physical-chemical parameters (temperature, humidity and oxygen levels).
We at ETI firmly believe in the possibility of improving the way we consume and in the solutions that research and technology can provide us to introduce increasingly eco-friendly products to the market.
This is why we have worked hard to develop a production of 100% compostable capsules, in order to offer our customers high quality private label capsules, able to make the most of the product and at the same time convey a message of respect for the environment and confidence in the future.