Morrisons has become the first UK supermarket to introduce recycling points for coffee machine pods.
The supermarket is trialling the new drop-off service in partnership with pod recycling service Pod Back. Customers will be able to collect their Podback recycling bags, fill with their used pods, and recycle in a dedicated bin located at the front of store.
Podback executive director Rick Hindley said the partnership is “exciting step forward towards providing consumers with easy and convenient ways to recycle their used coffee pods.”
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 – such as building products and plastic crates. The used coffee grounds also go through anaerobic digestion to produce biogas and soil improver.
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Customers will need to use correctly colour coded bags as pods are separated and sent to different recycling processing plants in the UK.
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 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.
Morrisons sustainable packaging and plastics manager Natasha Cook said the initiative makes it easy for 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,” she added.
