Morrisons have become the first UK supermarket to trial recycling points for coffee machine pods in partnership with Podback, the pod recycling service.
Morrisons are trialling a new drop-off service in 29 stores that allows customers to collect Podback recycling bags, fill them with their used pods and recycle them in a dedicated bin located at the front of the store. The recycling bags can be filled at home and taken to one of 6,500 Yodel drop-off points around the UK with postage covered by Podback.
Commenting on the new service, Natasha Cook, Sustainable Packaging and Plastics Manager at Morrisons said: “We’re excited to be launching this trial with Podback as we look to make it even easier for our customers who want to brew fresh coffee at home to recycle their used coffee pods. Now they can grab a Podback bag, fill it at home and simply drop it off on their next store trip.”
Customers need to use correctly colour-coded bags – one for aluminium pods and one for plastic pods – as pods are separated and sent to different recycling processing plants in the UK.
Morrisons are also now set to become a Podback member, which means the supermarket’s own-brand pods can now also be recycled through the scheme, along with 24 other pod brands across the coffee sector. The supermarket also highlights statistics that estimate that 800 million coffee pods were bought in the UK.
Through Podback, used aluminium pods are turned into aluminium ingots for new products, such as beverage cans, and the used plastic coffee pods are turned into other plastic items like building products and plastic crates. The used coffee grounds also go through anaerobic digestion to produce biogas and soil improver.
Rick Hindley, Executive Director at Podback, commented: “Morrisons was the first supermarket to become a supporter of Podback, and we’re thrilled that they’re now set to become a member; enabling their own brand pods to be recycled through the service and working with us to further improve access to coffee pod recycling by trialling a new drop-off system.
“This is another exciting step forward towards providing consumers with easy and convenient ways to recycle their used coffee pods. We welcome and encourage other retailers to join Podback and make it even easier for consumers to recycle pods in the future.”
