Cradle to Cradle
The lifecycle of a plant-based coffee capsule
The Green Ring coffee caps that you run through your machine every morning are actually grown in Thailand. Perhaps that sounds a little strange, but it’s simple really. Our suppliers grow the sugar plants that are used to form the PLA in a plantation in Thailand. The sugar is collected and converted into PLA by a company called Corbion. This works through a process called microbial fermentation. The PLA is made into pellets, and is then ready to be moulded into a coffee cap. They are then filled with one of our coffee blends, packaged in sustainably sourced packaging, and with a little bit of luck, bought buy a coffee lover.
Organic waste bin
After you’re finished with the capsule, it’s thrown in the organic waste bin and enters into the composting cycle. The capsule is broken down into CO2, water and biomass / compost, which is then used to fertilise plants. In that sense, the lifecycle of one of our coffee capsules is circular: it starts life in a field, and ends in one too.
Forget about Cradle-to-Cradle, check out our “field-to-field” lifecycle in the diagram below! Educate yourself on Corbion’s PLA processes here (be warned, it’s pretty dense stuff).