Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) has eliminated one million pounds of virgin plastic used in its popular K-Mini series of coffee makers.
The K-Mini brewer in black is made with 25 per cent post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic and the K-Mini Plus brewer in black is made with 50 per cent PCR plastic, an increase of more than 15 per cent since the brewer launched with PCR in 2020.
“The K-Mini, Keurig’s most environmentally minded coffee maker, represents a sustainable packaging approach that focuses on innovative design and increased use of recycled materials,” says Monique Oxender, Chief Sustainability Officer at Keurig Dr Pepper.
“Buying and using PCR plastic in our brewers goes beyond our existing packaging commitments and keeps valuable material in use and out of the environment, taking us a meaningful step closer to circularity within our business.”
As part of its Drink Well. Do Good. corporate responsibility platform, KDP has set 2025 sustainable packaging commitments for 100 per cent of packaging to be recyclable or compostable and to use 30 per cent PCR across its packaging portfolio.
KDP says recovering packaging material for reuse is critical to sustainable packaging, and it is a co-founder and largest investor in The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition and a co-founder in the Every Bottle Backinitiative along with industry peers and the American Beverage Association.
Since launching Polypropylene Recycling Coalition in 2020, nearly US$3 million in grant funding has been provided to seven materials recovery facilities across the United States to boost sortation of polypropylene and support targeted consumer education.
These investments aim to improve curbside polypropylene recycling access for an additional 3 per cent of all US households, impacting a total of 7.2 million people nationally.
In its first year, Every Bottle Back committed US$10 million in funds to 11 community projects throughout the US. These projects will collect an estimated 644 million new pounds of rPET plastic over 10 years that can be remade into new bottles.
