Know your capsule coffee, and the coffee capsule.

Capsule coffee machines made their grand entrance years ago, and have become common when the price is much lower compared to other types of coffee machine. Owning a coffee machine is always a dream for me (still a dream). When the capsule coffee concept was introduced, I was thrilled. In my mind, capsule coffee machine = making a cup of "fancy-looking-cafe-style" coffee is just one press away, aside from its modern and sleek look. I could instantly picture how good the coffee machine will look in my kitchen.

As a regular coffee drinker (basically daily), I have my fair share of dwelling into different ways of coffee making every morning. From instant 3-in-1 sachet (to avoid over thinking, and can be made even with one eye still closed in groggy morning), drip-on coffee, brew coffee machine and french press coffee. I am pretty sure I must have listed one of your morning coffee routines above.

The highlight of this write up will be given to capsule coffee. I came into close contact with capsule coffee when my brother got himself a capsule coffee machine. The arrays of colourful coffee pods, differentiating varieties of coffee, have become a new kitchen decor.

I would have to confess, I like the taste and fragrance of capsule coffee, and the ease of preparing it is another upper hand.

However, as a student who works closely with environmental issues, the single-use plastic capsule generated from each coffee making (not to mention another milk capsule for the milky taste for certain brands) is my biggest worry.

Capsule coffee offers you your daily dose of caffeine with ease, minus the going out and queuing part (a savior for lock down). But most of us are unaware of the amount of plastic waste generated by practicing such coffee making habits. Coffee capsules are capped with food grade foil and are often very hard to be processed by standard recycling plant, due to their materials (mixed material), types of plastics and the presence of aluminum tab at the bottom and also their sizes (as most recycling plants machinery are designed for bigger item such as can, capsule will fall right through it without being processed).

Even if your capsule is fully recyclable, if the foil or coffee ground residues are not fully removed or cleaned before putting them into the recycling bin, then, these capsules will be deemed as contamination in recycling. Meaning, those plastic capsules you threw into the recycling material bin will not be recycled if contaminated, and worst case scenario, the whole lot could get contaminated and all ended up in landfill instead of recycling plant. Wasted everyone's effort.

I am not saying that capsule coffee is merely a curse to the environment, but I do advise you to check with your capsule coffee provider to see if a recycling program is available (They do in many countries these days). As for what I know, Nespresso has launched their own recycling program specifically designed for their aluminum pods (For Malaysia, this recycling program is only available in Klang Valley for now).

You may know your coffee, but you should also know about your coffee capsule.

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Stay tuned for more on coffee and recycling.