Podback scheme: Morrisons Supermarket offer customers a way to recycle used aluminium coffee pods

The fourth-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, Morrisons has become the first supermarket to offer its customers a smart way to recycle coffee pods through a partnership with the recycling scheme Podback.

In the upcoming weeks, Morrisons customers will be apt to fetch free Podback Collect+ recycling bags from its customer service desks.

However, the Podback bags can be stuffed with used coffee pods at home, then taken to one of 6,500 collect plus delivered by Yodel drop off points around the UK. This also needs to be noted that all postage back to Podback is gratis.

The Podback scheme will drive the used aluminium pods to turn out into aluminium ingots for new products, like beverage cans and used plastic coffee pods are turned into other plastic items, such as furniture. The used coffee grounds would also go through anaerobic digestion towards the combined production of biogas and soil improver.

Podback is the pioneer coffee pod recycling scheme of its kind in the United Kingdom, while it was established by Nestle and Jacobs Douwe Egberts UK.

The present participating brands comprise Nespresso, Tassimo, L’OR, Nescafé Dolce Gusto, Starbucks by Nespresso, Starbucks by Nescafé Dolce Gusto, Cru Kafe, Artisan Coffee Co, Allpress Espresso, Colonna Coffee and Café Palmieri by Jomad Coffee.

The sales figure of coffee pods is on the higher side by 32% from pre-pandemic levels, as more people have worked from home. It has been anticipated that 1.2 billion pods were bought in the UK in 2021, formulating Podback even more much important as an easier avenue for customers to recycle their pods.

Rick Hindley, the Executive Director of Podback, said: “Podback provides consumers all over the UK with an easy way to recycle their coffee pods, no matter what brand they are buying. Morrisons is the first supermarket to become a supporter of the Podback scheme, as well as provide bags in store.”

"This is a great step forward and progress towards ensuring recycling coffee pods becomes second nature. Our goal is to ensure every pod enjoyed is recycled and working with retailers, like Morrisons, is crucial to ensuring the scheme is convenient and simple.”

"We welcome other retailers to join to make it even easier for consumers to recycle pods in the future.”

Lorraine Wheeler, the Environmental Packaging manager at Morrisons, said: “Many of our customers want to brew fresh coffee at home using a coffee pod.”

"But to date, coffee pod recycling has been confusing for consumers, with several different schemes by multiple brands. Podback offers an easy, simple scheme for all of our customers.”