Objective: In this report, you are required to demonstrate an understanding of the sustainable development of single-serve coffee containers in the coffee industry. Also, you are required to actively engage in the subject and come up with an original perspective on it.
Introduction
This report aims at sustainability development of single-serve coffee containers and briefly discuss various issues in the field. By examining a range of published works on the topic of sustainability development of single-serve coffee containers, this report describes the product main design features, its market situation, and development concerns. Also, the report highlights attitudes of different people such as stakeholders, customers, regulators, and among others. Therefore, the single-serve coffee container is the best method for brewing coffee since it only makes coffee for a single portion. Furthermore, the method reduces the time required to brew coffee and also makes brewing process simple by doing away with measuring portions, flavorings. The report will discuss the sustainable development of single-serve coffee containers as well as the design features of the product, peoples’ attitude toward the product, and the market situation of the product.
Design features of single-serve coffee containers
The invention of the single-serve coffee containers has revolutionized coffee drinking process. Over the past several years, the pod-machines have increased in use, and more than 10% of the people around the world are drinking coffee packaged in coffee pods every day. Peoples’ way of caffeinating has changed due to ease of use of the container. The container is simple in design and ease to use, thus many people prefers taking coffee with it.
The market situation of single-serve containers
The way people take coffee is changing one cup at a time. Coffee made in single-serve brewing systems has significantly increased the sales of coffee beverage. Currently, many people are spending more on the coffee drink at home. Research has proved that consumers spend much on coffee pods as they do on bulk coffee (Holt 236-255). The experts are surprised by the rapid growth of the pods, and they expect the drinking rate to go higher. Therefore, the single-serve brewing system appears everywhere.
Sustainable development of single-serve coffee containers
The coffee drinkers have adopted a new method of drinking caffeine in the recent past decade. The coffee capsule machine is used to fill aluminium pods with palatable coffee. The use of single-serve coffee containers has a great impact on the environment (DeGroff & Rolf 1). The coffee capsules or pods are not recyclable simply because they are made up of a mixture of aluminium and plastic. The packaging also has other residues of organic waste of unused ground coffee thus making it difficult to be recycled.
Sustainability concerns have probably had a dampening effect on growth in the coffee capsules sector (Brommer, Britta & Dietlinde 212-220). The beverage industry should do its best to reduce the negative effect of single-serve coffee containers from the environment (Brommer, Britta & Dietlinde 212-220). Making coffee pods that end up in the garbage, but do not decompose is a big mess. Better methods should be embraced to make coffee packaging suitable so as to have little impact on the environment. Therefore, coffee companies producing single-serve coffee products need to come up with recycling packaging.
Peoples’ attitude towards the single-serve coffee containers
Various stakeholders are against the use of disposable plastic since they are putting the environment under enormous pressure. Today, the plastic materials are everywhere. The plastic containers produced by the coffee brewing machine are a nuisance to the environment. Stakeholders are working closely with the coffee beverage industry so that only better design packages are produced to keep our environment free from plastic. Some countries such as German have banned the use of single-serve containers in cities.
Design opportunities matrix
There are three design opportunities for products. They include product design, interface design, and visual design.
Product Design
It is the main goal of the designer to create and prioritize the functionality which gives value to the users. The designer develops a product that users find it useful. Simply put, the designer thinks about how the user encounters the product at various points in their lifecycles. Therefore, the users are enabled to work with the product which provides them with additional value (Matzler et al 30-37)
The prioritization of the product is essential simply because there are not enough resources for all promising ideas and therefore, those with the most promise should be handled first. The product designer is guided by the company’s objectives by continually mapping out product prioritization.
Interface Design
It is the product conceptual functionality displayed by the designer and articulates how the user encounters with the functionality in the product. Website products have elements that are arranged and defined on each page so as to provide information and input to the user. The interface designer should make product intuitively usable, so that the users get the highest percentage of value from it. The designer has the responsibility of understanding constraints and opportunities afforded by their products and therefore, playing an empathetic role of envisioning and studying how people will use the product.
Visual Design
It is the ability of the product to convey a sense of quality and causes the right emotional response from its users. Visual design acts as the aesthetic and subjective design type since it is the most recognizable. Visual designers are responsible for crafting and delivering an ethos of the product, since they take cues from product and interface designers (Bunke et al 1). They ensure that the products have high value and meet user’s expectations by making interface elements attractive and appropriate.
The visual designer works closely with the user’s experience thus making him spend more time on detail (Bragg & Anthony 1). Therefore, they create products that have high-quality that users derive great benefits from them.
Conclusion
The single-serve coffee packaging is not recyclable as coffee beverage manufacturers claim. The coffee pods are one of the deplorable innovations of the present society. The coffee packages are too small for recycling machines, thus making them difficult to be recycled. The materials used cannot decompose thereby making the packages unsuitable for use. Therefore, coffee, beverage industry that uses coffee pods to package palatable coffee should come up with better packaging methods so as reduce the impact on our environment. Making coffee pods that end up in the garbage, but do not decompose is a big mess. Better methods should be embraced to make coffee packaging suitable so as to have little impact on the environment. Therefore, coffee companies producing single-serve coffee products need to come up with recycling packaging.
Works cited
Brommer Eva, Britta Stratmann & Dietlinde Quack. "Environmental impacts of different methods of coffee preparation." International Journal of Consumer Studies 35.2, 2011: 212-220.
Bunke, Paul Ralph, et al. "Single-serve coffee pod." U.S. Patent No. 8,900,648. 2 Dec. 2014.
Bragg, Tim A., & Anthony Lai, C. "Brew chamber for a single serve beverage brewer." U.S. Patent No. 7,165,488. 23 Jan. 2007.
DeGroff, Jamie W., & Rolf, Myers, C. "Single serve plastic container and package incorporating same." U.S. Patent No. 6,554,146. 29 Apr. 2003.
Holt, Douglas B. "Constructing sustainable consumption from ethical values to the cultural transformation of unsustainable markets." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 644.1, 2012: 236-255.
Matzler, Kurt, et al. "Business model innovation: coffee triumphs for Nespresso." Journal of Business Strategy 34.2, 2013: 30-37.
