A partnership formed last year between US materials specialist NatureWorks (Minnetonka, Minnesota; www.natureworksllc.com) and Italian coffee processor and distributor IMA (Bologna; www.ita.it) – see Plasteurope.com of 29.04.2021 – has begun trials to develop compostable coffee pods with the aim of rolling out manufacturing in the US.

NatureWorks, which is jointly owned by PTT Global Chemical (Bangkok, Thailand; www.pttgcgroup.com) and agribusiness Cargill (Minneapolis, Minnesota; www.cargill.com), teamed up with IMA in April 2021. The first significant trial phase on K-Cup compatible compostable coffee pods has kicked off, with testing underway on capsules, filter, and top lid films carried out at the IMA Coffee Lab.

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The aim of the trials is to identify and achieve optimum material sealing parameters and limits as well as a suitable set up of IMA packaging machineries to handle the pods successfully. NatureWorks said it had developed a custom Data Acquisition System for K-Cup compatible pods “to understand and benchmark how differing capsule designs perform under various brewing conditions”.

Flavio Di Marcotullio, NatureWorks’ global industry manager for single serve beverages, said the two firms had already begun the next phase of development “by partnering with converters in North America to bring these new compostable pod designs to commercial scale, making them available to brands and roasters seeking to meet consumer demands for more sustainable packaging and to circular economy directives”.

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