Should roasters start offering home compostable coffee cups?

Key takeaways

• Home compostable coffee cups are an ideal way for roasters to align with consumer demands for sustainable products.
• They are often made from renewable, organic materials such as sugarcane or kraft paper.
• You must ensure that the materials you choose for the cup, inner linings, and printing are suitable for domestic composting. Otherwise, it may cause confusion and result in the cup being disposed of incorrectly.
• Clear labelling, using rinse-off liners, and in-store bins can bridge the gap and ensure the cups break down appropriately.

Despite current global economic pressures, sustainability is still extremely important for coffee consumers. In fact, 44% of consumers are willing to pay more for products that support the environment, whether through eco-friendly farming methods or low-impact disposal methods.

Your choice of packaging significantly contributes to the environmental impact of food and beverage products and influences consumer buying decisions. For specialty coffee shops and roasters, you can meet this demand with sustainable takeaway cups. Given that over 62 million takeaway cups are discarded in the UK every week, home compostable cups are a valuable sustainability proposition.

To learn more about how coffee businesses can incorporate home compostable coffee cups, I spoke to Daniel Noguera. He is the founder of Urbana Cafe, a coffee shop and roastery based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

What are the benefits of home compostable coffee cups?

Home compostable coffee cups are an ideal solution to issues of single-use waste in the coffee industry. Currently, the most common options are paper-based cups with plastic liners for hot drinks and fully plastic cups for iced coffee.

However, the EU’s incoming ban on single-use plastics may force businesses to rethink their strategy. The impact of single-use coffee cups is well-known: primarily, when disposed of incorrectly, they can contribute to excessive landfill waste.

That said, traditional paper coffee cups can be just as harmful as plastic cups. Often, they contain a waterproofing plastic lining to insulate the cup. This combination of different materials makes recycling the cup difficult, meaning it can’t go into a plastic recycling bin.

Instead, it may take decades to break down in landfills, where it may emit chemicals like methane and contribute to microplastic pollution. Even without the plastic lining, paper cups that end up in landfills decompose anaerobically and release greenhouse gases.

For this reason, roasters should consider home compostable coffee cups as a sustainable alternative. Not only are they made from renewable materials, but they can also be domestically composted without impacting the environment.

To align with sustainability goals, Urbana launched home compostable coffee cups for hot and cold drinks. For hot coffee, it uses sugarcane, and for cold drinks, it combines paper with aqueous, rinse-off linings.

“As a retailer, we have a clear view of the single-use plastic problem,” Daniel tells me. “We can see, even in our community, the amount of waste and single-use plastic we can generate.

“All we wanted to do was to make drinks and food people love. With this, there are two options: be a part of the problem or be a part of the solution. We choose to make great coffee and protect the environment.”

Made from renewable materials, Urbana’s home compostable coffee cups aren’t printed with complicated disposal requirements. Because of their structure, customers don’t need to separate them before composting the cups. The only caveat is that for cold coffee cups, they need to rinse off the lining at home before composting.

“We want customers to enjoy their time with us; that’s the main goal. In addition, we want them to feel good about their purchase, which includes leaving a smaller carbon footprint,” Daniel explains.

What are home compostable coffee cups made from?

The broad use of the term “compostable” has created confusion among coffee shops and their customers. Therefore, it’s important to understand exactly what it means – and to communicate that to your visitors.

Regarding coffee cups, compostable materials include paper made of recyclable kraft paper, bagasse, wood fibre, or bamboo. Kraft paper is derived from wood or recycled paper, and bagasse is derived from sugarcane.

Compostable cups often have a biodegradable lining made of a water-based coating or bioplastic. Bioplastics are made from plants instead of fossil fuels like petroleum, minimising the emissions from production.

Polylactic acid (PLA) is the most common choice for coffee cup linings because it is compostable in industrial disposal streams. However, not all bioplastics are as sustainable and can be just as polluting as traditional plastics if not disposed of properly. Therefore, you need to choose a lining that aligns with local facilities and is easily disposable.

To ensure your cups are home compostable, you also need to consider the inks used for customisation. Vegetable- and water-based inks are the most sustainable options, as they break down more easily than traditional petroleum-based inks.

How to make your home compostable coffee cups more sustainable

Once you’ve determined the materials for your home compostable coffee cups, you need to ensure they comply with local and national regulations. After all, most takeaway coffee cups labelled as “compostable” are only accepted in industrial streams. This means they require carefully controlled, high-temperature environments optimised for composting.

You should look for cups marked with regional standards and certifications to comply with these regulations. Compostable coffee cups are often marked with the EN 13432 certification, which denotes materials that decompose in less than six months in compost.

However, this certification guarantees industrial compostability and not home compliance. Instead, options such as OK Compost Home from TŪV AUSTRIA are used for products that are entirely suitable for domestic composting.

These certifications are important to avoid issues around material mismatches and incorrect disposal. They often arise because takeaway coffee cups contain materials that go into different waste streams. For example, cups that include non-compostable materials can contaminate compost piles.

To avoid these issues, roasters must ensure that the entire cup, including the outer layer, lining, lid, and printing, is made using home compostable materials and inks. The alternative is to clearly outline to customers which parts are compostable and which aren’t.

For example, Urbana announced their compostable cups with a blog post and video. Still, educating consumers on proper composting remains a challenge. “Every takeaway drink has its own journey. We hope that customers are using the correct bins to dispose of their waste, but we can only hope,” Daniel says.

Fortunately, there are some tangible ways to address these issues. For example, you can set up convenient, clearly labelled collection bins for compostable cups in your roastery or coffee shop. This eases the burden on customers and allows roasters to ship the materials directly to industrial composting facilities.

Overall, offering home compostable coffee cups may require extra commitment, as they usually come with higher price points and fewer options. Additionally, recent US import tariffs have raised prices on compostable materials.

However, some packaging manufacturers have started offering a greater array of compostable materials at competitive prices. Consumers’ willingness to pay more for sustainable products can also help offset costs, as roasters can charge more for drinks in compostable cups.

“When we started on this route, finding vendors was very challenging,” Daniel says. “Now, it’s much easier and the prices are closer to plastic.”

At MTPak Coffee, we offer fully compostable coffee cups compliant with the EN 13432 standard. We offer a range of customisable options using eco-friendly inks, as well as aqueous linings for easier domestic composting. By working with our team to determine your choice of materials and features, you can make the cups as low-impact as possible.

Contact the MTPak Coffee team to learn more about our compostable coffee cups.

FAQ

What is the difference between compostable and home compostable coffee cups?

Compostable coffee cups often only break down in industrial facilities with controlled heat and oxygen conditions. Home compostable cups, on the other hand, can break down in domestic streams without specialised conditions.

Are all paper coffee cups compostable?

No. Most paper coffee cups contain a plastic lining for waterproofing, which is usually not compostable. Therefore, customers need to peel off the lining, or roasters need to offer rinseable linings.

What materials are home compostable coffee cups made from?

Home compostable coffee cups are often made from renewable materials such as kraft paper, sugarcane bagasse, or bamboo. The linings are made from aqueous coatings that easily rinse off at home.