Washington, May 11: Empa researchers took a close look at the overall ecobalances of various coffee capsule systems and concluded that it all depends on the contents.

The choice of coffee has a much stronger effect on the environmental friendliness than the capsule system, type of machine or method of preparation.

Roland Hischier, Empa''s ecobalance expert, has just finished investigating various capsule systems as well as fully automatic machines, filter and soluble coffee making techniques, and has prepared a simplified life cycle analysis. This shows that it is the content that matters most.

"A well-informed choice of coffee is in any case the best option for the environment," according to Hischier.

Those who want to enjoy their drink while doing their bit for the environment should choose coffee which bears an ecological label.

During the ecobalance evaluation Hischier weighed the different capsules and identified the main components of the contents. He then took values from the literature for the average material usage and energy consumption during the manufacture of the product.

For filter coffee and instant coffee he similarly used values taken from the literature. A study from Brazil, which analyzed 56 coffee plantations, was used as the basis for the ecological evaluation of the coffee itself.

Since it is not known precisely what type of coffee each of the capsules contains, Hischier took into account not just the average values reported in the Brazilian study but also the extreme values. This enabled him to show the influence of each coffee type – or rather each method of growing the crop – on the overall ecobalance of the coffee making procedure.

The environmental damage caused during the growth of the coffee crop is the largest single factor affecting the ecobalance. Depending on the amount of work done on the coffee plantation and the different levels of usage of farm machinery (i. e. diesel fuel for tractors), fertilizer and pesticides, environmental data for coffee varies significantly. (ANI)