Startup solves coffee pod disposal dilemma
On a desk in their office, the wrinkly business cards for Michael Sands and Frankie Schuster look like they would decompose in a matter of weeks if buried — which they are actually designed to do since they are embedded with wildflower seeds to spring from the soil.
As for the coffee pods and straws strewn on that desktop? Those look as indestructible as any plastic — but composed of natural materials, they begin breaking down after only a few months in the soil of a composting facility.
Smile Coffee Werks is promoting a new way to keep billions of plastic straws and brewing pods out of landfills, by having consumers toss them into bins for commercial composting services at their local recycling centers.
Pods and straws are made of organic materials compressed by machines to mimic the impermeable properties of plastic, but able to break down in soil over time with no accompanying release of toxins.
“Bang it on the desk — it’s strong,” said Sands, CEO of the Darien-based startup. “It’s all plantbased.”
In addition to selling brew pods for Keurig and Nespresso machines under the Smile Coffee Werks label, the company offers to package them for other labels, as small as the local coffee shop or roaster. The company is selling its own pods for $20 for a pack of 24.
Longer brew, straws too
Parent company Smile Beverage Werks has raised more than $3 million to date in early funding — three investors worked earlier in their career with Keurig Dr Pepper and its predecessor company that popularized the pod concept, including a former vice president of environmental affairs.
While grass-roots campaigns have taken shape to keep plastic straws and bottles out of the waste stream in Connecticut communities from Greenwich to Stonington, coffee pods have yet to get the same treatment.
Schuster learned of the technology while on a trip to Germany — he spent his early years there before his parents moved to Florida — and saw the potential for introducing it in the United States. As a construction project manager, Schuster did not have consumer product experience, but while fitting out a New York cheese shop in Westchester County, he mentioned the idea to the proprietor who suggested he contact Sands.
Once a senior executive for Snapple — owned today by Keurig Dr Pepper — Sands is an old hand in the consumer products business. At varying junctures, he has been CEO of the Danbury snack maker LesserEvil, Balance Bar and the organic candy maker YumEarth, also leading marketing for Ben & Jerry’s under Unilever.
Sands zeroed in immediately on the potential of the technology for K-Cup pods in Keurig machines, in addition to Schuster’s initial focus on Nespresso capsules. Smile Coffee Werks is offering the capability to companies that market coffee pods for those platforms, including small, independent coffee shops and roasters looking to gain a wider following.
In addition to being compostable, the pod filters are designed to percolate coffee a few seconds longer than those available today, producing a richer coffee flavor.
“Our pods don’t have a petroleum smell,” Sands said. “You get a better cup of coffee.”
‘All about convenience’
Anywhere from 20 billion to 50 billion coffee pods end up in incinerators and landfills every year, according to varying estimates. In Connecticut and elsewhere, there is a growing consensus for the need to cut back on plastics, given the dangers they pose to the environment both in their production and as trash.
Keurig Dr Pepper has converted its “K-cup” production to polypropylene No. 5, which can be recycled into new products after the pod contents are discarded. But for cups that end up in the garbage, PP 5 can take 30 years or more to break down in a landfill, leaving behind a footprint of micro-plastics and toxins.
While Keurig Dr Pepper got the second best grade after Coca-Cola on the most recent plastic pollution “scorecard” published by the environmental advocacy group As You Sow, it managed only a “C-plus” grade on the study, which assessed its full portfolio of beverage brands.
“We ... continue to innovate in pod sustainability and have begun the introduction of easy peel lids to our recyclable K-Cup pods in order to make the recycling process simpler for consumers,” Keurig Dr Pepper CEO Bob Gamgort said last week on a conference call.
But Sands maintains that still represents a chore that Smile Coffee Werks eliminates.
“To recycle them, you have to pop off the aluminum lid, clean them out and rinse them, and then find out if your local recycling center takes polypropylene — and if they do, do they take small pieces,” Sands said. “That’s the catch, because this is all about convenience — and you just eliminated the convenience.”
Coffee Smile Werks’ pods begin the degradation process after about three months in a commercial compost facility, its straws even quicker. The pods have a shelf life of one year, with the lids, filters and inks also meeting Environmental Protection Agency standards for composting.
Sands and Schuster have since expanded the vision for the company to include straws and bags for ground coffee and other products. The straws are priced at $25 for a box of 300 on the Smile Coffee Werks website — in addition to being compostable, Sands said the company’s straws are sufficiently durable to run through a dishwasher cycle for subsequent reuse.
Sands believes the startup will get plenty of companies calling with its “go green with a smile” slogan.
“The U.S. has a long way to go, but we’re here to help everybody get there,” Sands said. “There’s no compromise — it’s just better for the environment.”