Moving Beans came about whilst a coffee fan talked to a researcher to provide the incomparable eco-friendly Nespresso-compatible coffee capsules which preserve the taste of the coffee. The capsules are 100% naturally degradable and can be securely thrown out with organic waste.

We have clearly more blogs on coffee, coffee pods and compostable coffee pods under Coffee Pods Review. Other educational articles on natural coffee capsules are for instance from leading media publishers, or Moving Beans or other sources. Also, check out our Compostable Coffee Pods and Sustainability Article.

We are typically being asked what bioplastics are, or what is the significance of a product being compostable or biodegradable? Exists any relationship in between bioplastics and biodegradability? How should we consumers deal with these items? In this blog site, we try to break down these principles through simple descriptions that will ideally help you much better understand their significance and be more familiar with the options you are taking as a consumer. Let's go step by step:

BIOPLASTICS.

These are products that are either originated from biomass (e.g. plants, such as corn or sugarcane) or are biodegradable; or undoubtedly function both residential or commercial properties. They vary from traditional plastics in that the latter are made from fossil oil (petrol).

The advantages of using sustainable materials to produce bioplastics are: increase in resource performance (e.g. use of biomass for various purposes), reduction of the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions (those that significantly contribute to climate change); and saving fossil resources by gradually replacing them.

BIODEGRADABLE.

Biodegradation is a process - a chemical process - during which microbes that are offered in the environment convert materials into natural compounds such as water, carbon dioxide, and garden compost (artificial additives are not required).

The process of biodegradation depends upon the surrounding environmental conditions (e.g. location or temperature level), on the products included and on the procedure itself. This process can take brief amount of times (weeks and months) or extended periods of time (10s or even centuries). In other words, plastic items made from biomass (a type of bioplastic) are not necessarily eco-friendly. On the other hand, some petrol-based plastics might be naturally degradable. The household of bioplastics can be divided into 3 main groups:

• bio-based (or partly bio-based) but non-biodegradable plastics (e.g. PE, PP, PET, PTT or TPC-ET);.

• plastics that are both bio-based and biodegradable (e.g. PLA, PHA or PBS);.

• petrol-based plastics that are eco-friendly (e.g. PBAT).

COMPOSTABLE.

Composting is likewise a process-- a chemical procedure.

It is the procedure of biodegradation under aerobic conditions (presence of complimentary oxygen) within a time frame of 6-12 weeks. There are 2 ways to perform this procedure: industrially or home-compost. Industrially compostable conditions are extremely specific and they have been specified under the European standard EN 13432 for product packaging items and adopted by the British Standard Institution under BS EN 13432 requirement. Just those product packaging items that meet the strict requirements of the EN 13432 standard are approved with the certification of OK-Compost Industrial and can be unambiguously considered industrially compostable.

In practice, this implies that you can dispose this material, including compostable coffee pods, in your natural waste bin for it to be sent out to the closest commercial composting center. Home-compostable packaging rather is not covered under one single widely-known requirement however rather within several country-based ones. This is because the conditions in a home-compost are not that manageable as in the case of a commercial compost.

Under home-composting condition temperature levels and humidity can vary significantly from place to location, and year on year, not always achieving the best decay in a sensible timeframe.

Nowadays, nevertheless, society and specialists in the field see the requirement for moving into this instructions if we want to become more sustainable. That is why we may see really intriguing advancements and developments in this home-composability space in the following decade.

One of the SME I truly love is Moving Beans who have been providing compostable coffee pods for many years, with more info under https://www.movingbeans.com/collections/our-coffee. They were one of the first to provide truly natural Nespresso coffee pods.