Abstract
Single-serve machines have proven to be a rapid and convenient mechanism for preparing coffee for consumption. However, disposing the single-use coffee pods accompanying each use creates insurmountable waste in landfills. With the introduction of biobased products being certified as industrially compostable, there is scope for an effective waste stream for nearly all biobased products that avoids adding to landfills. The case presented in this paper demonstrates the success of composting compostable coffee pods within a local industrial-scale composting facility. Utilizing the existing local composting facility at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, a life cycle assessment was performed to calculate the overall embodied energy and related environmental impact(s) to determine the feasibility of using compostable coffee pods over conventional plastic ones. Testing showed complete degradation within 46 days, proving composting to be a feasible waste stream option and a sustainable marketing edge while treading the path toward a circular economy. Cost savings of 21% were realized in terms of waste disposal, in addition to creating a value-added product at the end of the coffee pods life cycle, with nutrient-rich compost being recirculated to campus gardens and farms.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 9158 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020, The Author(s).
Funding
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to compost site staff members Dylan Rosseland-Harrison, Austin Reynolds, and Tony Hearon for their help and support during the testing stage of this project and the wonderful upkeep of the composting facility on a daily basis. We thank UTK Recycling (as part of Facilities Services), headed by Jay Price, for providing data and verifying values and Carolyn Brown from the Office of Sustainability for their input. We are thankful to Laurie Varma, our technical editor at ORNL who took the time to edit our final manuscript and helped substantially improve the language and quality of the work. Thanks to our current intern Andrew Bowen for assisting in converting images within the final version of this draft, our previous intern Georgiana Blue for help conducting experiments last summer, Cole Franz for assisting with the university blueprint assessment, and our colleagues at the Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and IACMI, the Composites Institute, for their help, support, and guidance throughout the compilation of this paper. Support from the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), The Composites Institute is gratefully acknowledged. The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy, under award no. DE-EE0006926.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-EE0006926 |
| National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | P42ES027723 |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy |
