In the United Kingdom, a small coffee roaster says it is offering the world’s first air-tight, compostable Nespresso-compatible coffee pods.
Stuart Wilson, founder of Lost Sheep Coffee in Whitstable, says the product uses lignin, a waste product of the paper industry that breaks down after 12 weeks in composters.
He got the idea after having a child and considering the amount of waste her generation was being left to contend with. “When I started researching this some of the figures I read were just staggering,” he tells Kent online. “One said in excess of 500 million capsules every year go to landfill. It blows your mind. My little girl is 20-months-old, and her generation is going to inherit this whole environmental issue. I didn’t want to be part of the problem.”
Lost Sheep Coffee, which has shops in Ashford and Canterbury as well as an online store, began to get requests for capsules, however. To meet his customers’ demand, Wilson found a company that could offer a packaging solution. “It’s not the first-ever compostable capsule,” he adds. “But it’s the world’s first air-tight and fully compostable Nespresso-compatible capsule. With other compostable options, there’s a level of permeability—oxygen gets through, and makes the coffee go stale within a couple of months.” Being air-tight gives Lost Sheep Coffee 12 months of shelf life for its coffee. A pack of 10 pods costs £3.95.