Uncafé: Biodegradable Coffee Capsules

Uncafé is a brand which focuses on producing the perfect, guilt-free cup of coffee. As a brand, they focus on direct trade and offer consumers a more sustainable serving of coffee on the go.

The brand name in itself can be translated as meaning ‘a single cup’ and is a name that is understood across language barriers across the world. Marketed as a sustainable brand, Uncafé aims to uplift coffee producers in their trade and provide them with necessary resources to grow their crop each year despite the issues of climate change, food insecurity and poverty in producer nations.

A portfolio of delicious coffees can be referenced in the brand’s exclusive offering of unique coffees from top producers across collectives in Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala and many more.

The signature pod/ ‘biocapsule’ is created from recycled plant materials. Not only is the capsule GMO-, gluten-free, and vegan, but it is 100% commercially compostable and biodegradable.

The Terracaps biocapsule breaks down into nutrient-rich compost under industrial composting environmental conditionsand has an extended shelf life of 12-months due to its highly effective oxygen barrier.

As a sustainability-led design the box needed to be low impact on the environment. Ideated materials were to include recycled paper and waste product material from the product itself. In order for the package to suit the requirements of being low impact, it needed to fall comply to the categories of being either recyclable, reusable or re-purposable, or a combination thereof. Although plastic can be beneficial in this application and is fully recyclable in most cases, the brief benefitted mostly by incorporating cardboard into its design, which is 100% recyclable and contributes to a circular production cycle.

Conventional ink printing is largely impactful on the environment and quick-drying inks benefit from petroleum based solvents and are not suitable, as they release harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds)2 into the atmosphere. To combat these issues with solvent-based, LASER and conventional inkjet printing methods, Uncafé is designed to benefit from soy ink printing. The combination of wet soy ink and recycled cardboard provides a beneficial drying surface for the ink which takes longer to dry on coated paper due to low VOCs.