Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong And Mike Dirnt Are Launching Their Own Coffee Company

Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, the founding members of punk rock band Green Day, are reportedly getting ready to launch their own coffee roasting company, Oakland Coffee Works.

Armstrong and Dirnt, the band's lead vocalist and guitarist, and bassist, respectively, who are also working on their 12th studio album, say that their company is the first to use mass-produced coffee bags and pods that are compostable.

 Oakland Coffee Works' bags were developed in partnership with UrthPact, a company that manufactures plant-based compostable plastic, and Ultra Flex, a company that developed the bags. Other pods, like those produced by Keurig, have yet to be made completely compostable, a sticking point which has been criticized by environmentalists and even the K-Cup's own creator, John Sylvan.

 According to the Financial Times, the most important breakthrough in creating the bags was to design a degassing valve that releases pressure from airtight bags, while preventing air from getting back in.  Oakland Coffee Works' bags will go on sale later this week, while the company's coffee pods will be available by late January.

"I've been drinking coffee all these years, I looked at the coffee bags and realized they're all landfill," Dirnt told the Financial Times. "It was astonishing to me. I hope that the big companies out there step up to the plate too."