In early November, Nespresso announced that it was reducing the retail price of its pods in Singapore prior to the opening of its new boutique in Raffles City. I was faced with a lot of happy responses on social media from my Nespresso-consuming friends in Singapore and Jakarta. And why not? Almost all their grand cru pods will be priced 30 cents lower, on average, than they used to be. This is a deal considering the amount of coffee we consume every day.

But my biggest issue is that no one is wondering why, in the midst of hikes in coffee prices around the world due to climate change, is Nespresso able to drop the price while every other major coffee producer is struggling to keep their pricing steady? Bulk purchasing? Not necessarily. Especially noting that it is the products’ higher end, single-origin products that are being reduced.

(Read also: Banaran coffee, a legendary century-old tale)

The only reason I can think of is the plummeting cost of petroleum earlier this year. Why, you may ask? Well, plastic is, after all, made out of petroleum. And as the market is enjoying the lowest petroleum prices in years, waste management is not exactly having the same excitement. This year alone, 10 waste management plants in the United States have closed down due to lower levels of recycling, accounting for about 10 percent of their total revenues. So as the price of petroleum goes down, for companies like Nespresso, Keurig and other capsule beverages, it is cheaper to make fresh new capsules rather than recycle the materials they use.

Discarding these capsules is definitely not a simple case. Due to the various materials in the cups, consumers have to dedicate time to separate the organic (coffee grinds), the plastic and aluminum parts before each can be recycled separately. Otherwise, everything will just go to landfills and land somewhere in the environment, especially those consumed in Indonesia.

As much as the company encourages people to take their used capsules and recycle them at their boutiques, there are currently three Nespresso outlets in Singapore and one in Thailand that can accept used capsules. None are available in Indonesia. Although the company claims that they will recycle 75 percent of the post-consumer pods, Nespresso has never released the amount of recycled materials in previous years. And I am pretty sure that you won’t like the idea of carrying empty pods in your luggage to Singapore.

Then what’s the solution? The easiest one would be to limit your consumption of these capsule products and judge wisely based on their impact on the environment. Second, is to spend a little bit more time preparing your own coffee every day and rewarding yourself with a good cup of effort and bliss as you start your day. Otherwise, support your local coffee shop, which may source its beans locally from small roasters. An uprising of interest in coffee should not have a backlash by increasing post-consumer waste.

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