RECYCLING WITH NESPRESSO

RECYCLING WITH NESPRESSO

Tuesday 6 June 2017

Coffee. Thank the heavens for coffee.

It's been keeping my mum brain going since 2012. Yes, I loved coffee before that, just not in the my life depends on it if I'm going to keep two young children alive all day, kinda way.

Now when I wake up I NEED that first coffee to fake the 8 hours sleep my body so craves. The first cup barely touches the sides, the second cup I really, really enjoy, and then let's not discuss how many cups I go onto thereafter, I'll leave that for my coffee anonymous group meeting, but let's just say it's a whole lot of coffee.

So, when Nespresso got in touch with me about raising awareness about their recycling system, as an avid coffee drinker, I jumped at the chance. I don't know about you but with the age of both my boys recycling is a big topic. I love that recycling is just the norm for them. They know what goes in what bins at home, apart from the occasional banana peel (usually Archie) that ends up in the wrong bin. Like a blood hound I know instantly when this has happened and don't rest until I've found every last bit of peel. Oh that smell. That aside though, they're great at remembering and understanding it's important to recycle as it gives things a new life.

First off, all Nespresso drinkers will already know that the aluminium pods can't go into household recycling. If you ever wondered why this is, it's because the capsules need to go through a complex process to separate the coffee from the aluminium, something that is difficult for traditional recycling.

So why the choice to use the aluminium casing still?

With Nespresso priding themselves on the best possible coffee drinking experience, aluminium is used as it keeps the coffee as fresh as the moment it has been grounded. Have you ever wondered why when you buy your Nespresso pods you can't smell the coffee? That's thanks to the sealed aluminium pod locking in the freshness. In fact, if you can smell coffee it means the pod is damaged somewhere. However, their choice to use aluminium is not only for the quality of the coffee but also because once recycled it goes on to have a very valuable second life.

This is exactly what I learnt when I was invited down to their recycling plant in Congleton. Picture me, high viz jacket, protective eye wear, it was like being back on a school trip again! There we watched them sort through all the bags of used pods they receive and then the entire process it goes through until it finishes up as blocks of differently graded aluminium. There they go on to make car parts, bike frames and more, while the coffee goes off to be used as compost.

Whilst we were at the recycling plant we were apparently only looking at about two weeks worth of pods. There were tens of thousands and that's without us all recycling them. It really brought home how important it is to keep them out of landfill. Never underestimate the power of doing your own little bit. It does count, and it does matter. For me recycling is helping to safe guard the future world for our children, and their children's children. 

Nespresso are currently striving to make it easier for us as the customer to recycle our pods. In the ideal world we'd all put them out with our normal bin collection service, this is something they'll be trialing very soon in the Chelsea and Kensington, London borough. However, for the rest of us, until that hopefully happens they're looking to us, the consumer, to do our part to stop the pods clogging up landfill and instead go onto to have a second life. 

Current ways to recycle your Nespresso pods:

1.    Drop them into your local Nespresso Boutique, ideal if you've ran out of coffee and need to stock up. You can also pick up more recycling bags in store while you're there.

2.    You can use any of the thousands of CollectPlus points in the UK. Simply print out a label and pop it into your nearest collection point. You can find more information on that service here.

3.     Call Nespresso to arrange a collection and then simply leave outside your front door. If you run out of recycling bags and don't have a boutique near you, you can order on line for free with Nespresso here. 

As you can see I've drafted in my coffee makers and they know exactly how to make my coffee (with my help;) just how I like it, and to pop the pods in the recycling bag when we're done. A favourite job of Caleb's.

I hope you found this post as informative as the day I spent with Nespresso. I was totally unawares of their recycling efforts, and I'm so glad I know now.

* this post was sponsored by Nespresso. A big thank you to them for a really interesting trip. All thoughts and opinions are my own.