MORRISONS is trialling recycling points for coffee machine pods in 29 of its UK stores.
The supermarket is working on the project in partnership with pod recycling service Podback. The drop-off service allows customers to collect their Podback recycling bags, fill with their used pods, and recycle in a dedicated bin located at the front of store.
Customers need to use correctly colour coded bags – one for aluminium pods one for plastic pods – as pods are separated and sent to different recycling processing plants.
Morrisons is also set to become a Podback member, meaning the retailer’s own-brand pods can also be recycled through the scheme, along with 24 other pod brands across the coffee sector.
Last year, Morrisons announced it was the first supermarket to support Podback and remains the only one to provide free coffee pod recycling bags for its customers to collect in all its stores. The 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.
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.
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.”
Rick Hindley, executive director at Podback, added, “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.”
