Eco-friendly coffee pods: 7 brands that are using the best beans and biodegradable materials

1. Colonna

Colonna make their high end coffee capsules fully recyclable by crafting them out of aluminium. They are all about taste and quality and plastic plays no part in this game. Colonna’s fascination with the science of making the perfect brew has seen their founder, Maxwell, crowned three time UK Barista champion.

The coffee in their Nespresso-friendly capsules has been roasted and ground in line with a specific recipe. This ensures that you and your taste-buds get maximum enjoyment out of your morning caffeine kickstart.

Read Colonna’s simple step by step guide to recycling their capsules and learn about the progress they’re making in compostable capsules.

2. Coffee & Kin

As one of the few coffee capsule brands to proudly carry the ‘Plastic Free Trustmark logo’, Coffee & Kin are blazing ahead on the eco-friendly coffee pod path. They focus on roasting kindness as well as flavour into their java.

Their 100% plastic free, biodegradable pods are fully compostable and therefore kind to the environment. By ensuring their beans are ethically sourced at fair prices, they are kind to their farmers. These conscious practices mean that they are also kind to you, the consumer, since you can use their pods to galvanise your morning guilt-free!

These Nespresso-compatible pods can be purchased through Coffee and Kin’s online store.

3. Lost Sheep

Lost Sheep create their certified 100% compostable Nespresso-friendly capsules from...wood. Yes, you read that right. This Kent based micro-roastery and coffee shop chain has launched a completely air-tight speciality coffee capsule made from lignin, a product derived from bark.

Lost Sheep work closely with their growers to keep the farm to coffee-machine trajectory totally clean. By using the best grade Arabica beans and hand-roasting them near pebble magazines's home turf, Whistable, the taste and body of their brews will definitely satisfy your caffeine craving too.

Order Lost Sheep's eco coffee capsules straight from their site.

4. Blue Goose

Blue Goose are embracing biodegradable coffee pod technology with their new range of eco coffee capsules. They use single-origin organic coffee and zero single-use plastic.

Their organic coffee pods are compatible with Nespresso, made from wood bark and guaranteed to turn into compost within 12 weeks of being placed in council food waste collections. Could their coffee grounds be any greener? Yes!

Blue Goose pods are produced using renewable energy, packaged in sustainably sourced, recyclable cardboard and printed using vegetable inks. To top it all off, they ensure the taste of their coffee matches it’s impressive eco credentials, by only using the highest quality Arabica beans.

Buy your Blue Goose biodegradable coffee capsules here.

5. Moving Beans

Moving Beans understand that coffee pods have become a staple of our fast paced lives. They make it easy to be practical and sustainable with their environmentally-saintly Nespresso-compatible capsules.

These coffee pods are made from only plant-based materials, derived from sugar cane and sugar beet. They contain no aluminium or hydrocarbon plastics and neither does their packaging, which is just recyclable paper! Don’t worry, they may be made from wood, but they taste nothing like it. Your coffee habit will be kept happy thanks to this brands carefully sourced and roasted beans.

Buy Moving Beans sustainable coffee capsules here.

6. Halo Coffee

Halo are answering the world’s constant cries for ethical coffee capsules without compromising the health of the planet. Built for Nespresso machines and not for landfills, Halo pods can simply be chucked into the compost bin and left to release their nutrient rich contents back into the earth they grew out of.

Their bespoke blend is ethically sourced from some of the highest mountain peaks in the world, to help you reach peak performance each morning. Deeply sombered by the damage caused by plastic and aluminium capsules, they endeavour to make ethical coffee consumption an intrinsic part of our culture, rather than just a category.

Buy Halo's Nespresso-compatible compostable coffee pods here.

7. Roar Gill

Roar Gill use a cutting-edge cornstarch-based bioplastic to make their coffee pods, and the packaging they come in, 100% compostable. Because they are conscious about the carbon used in the production process, they also manufacture their capsules using only renewable sources of energy and they have even carbon offset 29,603 sea miles when transporting their coffee from farmer to capsule! Made from fairtrade, organic beans that are bought at a fair price from their growers, the coffee in these pods tastes as artisan as it is eco.

Buy Roar Gill's Nespresso-compatible compostable coffee pods here.

Are other coffee pods bad for the environment?

Unfortunately, most coffee pods contain plastic. So, after being used only once, each one adds to the rapidly expanding pile of trash that will take hundreds of years to decompose. It’s such a problem that Hamburg have completely banned coffee capsules.

Which eco friendly coffee pods will work in my home coffee machine?

Many of the capsules listed above will work in a standard Nespresso machine. If they don’t, most of the brands featured here stock all the kit you need to enjoy their products.

Want to learn more about keeping your caffeine habit clean?

Read about why the solution to the coffee cup problem isn't simple.