A mug of steaming coffee is what gets some people out of bed on a morning, often it’s that caffeine boost that’s needed to start the day with energy and a bit of “Pizazz!” A coffee is sometimes favoured at the end of a romantic night too, as in “do you want to come in for a coffee” …..
However and whenever you enjoy yours it’s hard not to notice how making a coffee at home or in the office has changed of late.
Making a coffee has certainly advanced with technology, Instead of just boiling the kettle and spooning a heap of your favourite brand into a mug, the “old but perfectly functional way” more and more people are investing in coffee machines that will potentially deliver barista quality coffee right from your kitchen or office canteen.
What seems like a zillion different types of coffee flavours are available from the machine and even the big high street coffee shop brands can be enjoyed at a fraction of the cost of high street prices.
From a recycling point of view these drinks machines are not as kind to the environment as a simple jar of coffee and a kettle.
For these coffee machines to function the coffee beans come pre packed in a plastic pod and often contains mixed plastics and metal foils. All the major coffee manufacturers have released a similar pod delivery system, they claim it’s a necessary evil to allow the coffee beans and other secret blends to stay fresh and tasty in transit, storage and whilst installed in the machine.
It’s unfortunate that these coffee pods cannot be recycled in your local doorstep or kerbside recycling scheme as they are classed as mixed materials due to how they are made.
With an estimated 2 billion cups of coffee consumed around the world each day it’s fair to assume that many millions will be produced in coffee pods of some sort.
Dolce Gusto is a just one of the many manufacturers who produce these pods and they recognise that something is to be done to make these items more recyclable and improve their carbon footprint.
Coffee Pods Recycling Scheme
If you have one of these coffee machines from Dolce Gusto you can recycle your waste pods really easily. Every time you order your pods from the Dolce Gusto web shop they will send you out 2 pink recycling bags to pop your used pods in. Parcel Company Collect Plus are handling all the shipping so it’s totally free to recycle.
See below for step by step instructions on how to recycle your coffee pods.
- Simply drain of any remaining liquid from the pod then pop them into the recycling bag provided.
- When the bag is filled upto the pink line, seal the bag using the seal strip attached.
- Head to the Dolce Gusto recycling web page on their main site and download a printable freepost shipping label.
- Visit your nearest Collect Plus point and drop of your bag, it’s that simple.
Dolce Gusto are committed to a zero waste to landfill pledge ensuring that all of the packaging they generate is either recyclable or reusable by 2025. They have already changed some of their pods plastic colouring from black to brown to make it easier to identify and recyclable.
Once your coffee pods arrive at the recycling point they separate the waste coffee beans from the plastics, the plastic head off to be recycled into plastic furniture or even new pods and the waste coffee is converted into bio gas to heat homes and businesses.
So next time you enjoy your favourite blend remember to save your pods from the waste bin, every pod recycled is a positive step to achieving Dolce Gusto’s recycling pledge and a positive step for our environment.
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