Compostable is not equal to compostable

Coffee grounds make excellent fertiliser for plants

That's right! If you grow plants in your garden or on your balcony, you can use your coffee balls or coffee grounds as fertiliser after brewing. Coffee Balls are an environmentally friendly alternative to capsules as they are free from plastic and aluminum. Vegetables such as broccoli, beans, chicory, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, aubergines, lettuce, radishes and tomatoes in particular benefit from coffee being used as a fertiliser. How often you should add fertiliser to your plants depends on the variety of plant. Generally speaking, you should add a portion of coffee every two or three weeks.

Biodegradable capsules are just as good as all others

Unfortunately, this isn't quite true. Some environmentally friendly coffee capsules are made from cellulose, which is extracted from plant matter such as wood. Nevertheless, coffee capsules must provide a barrier against steam and oxygen and preserve the flavour and aroma of coffee. This is currently provided with the help of bioplastics. These plastics cannot be recycled, and they compost only very slowly. CoffeeB Coffee Balls have the advantage that they already have this barrier in the form of a natural protective shell made of alginate. That makes them a sustainable alternative to traditional coffee capsules. After brewing, coffee balls can be composted in the garden or in a flower pot without leaving any residues behind.

Biodegradable capsules should not be disposed of in green waste

This is true! There are several reasons why biodegradable coffee capsules shouldn't be disposed of in bins for organic rubbish. Firstly, they are difficult to distinguish from traditional plastic products, which would make waste sorting more laborious. Secondly, according to a Biomasse Suisse position paper entitled "Biokunststoffe in Grüngutanlagen" ("Bioplastics in composting systems"), bioplastics have difficulty breaking down completely when composted. Therefore, residues of bioplastics may remain in the compost and be spread as fertilizer on agricultural fields, potentially leading to accumulation in the soil.

Bioplastics are sustainable

Unfortunately this isn't entirely true. According to Biomasse Suisse, there is no clear definition of the term "bioplastic". It states that the term refers not only to plastics that are manufactured entirely or partially from renewable resources and considered to be bio-based, but also to those produced microbiologically and seen as biodegradable. Biomasse Suisse says that the vegetable raw materials typically used for bioplastics are sugar, starch, cellulose and plant oils. These all require farmland to produce, putting them in direct competition with food and animal feed production.

Coffee balls meet all of the requirements for composting

That's exactly right! Thanks to CoffeeB, we now have a new solution that meets all of the requirements for composting – both at home and at local authority composting facilities. The capsule system doesn't need any aluminium or bioplastic capsules. Instead, used Coffee Balls can be disposed of in the green waste container after use or even placed as fertilizer in a plant pot to provide essential nutrients to the plants.