In the latest instalment of our new guest blog series, we hear from Nicholas Foo, Chief Revenue Officer at MORNING Coffee, about how Podback is helping drive its sustainability mission in the UK.
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When people think about coffee pods, they often talk about the convenience of the product instead of the quality of the drink. At MORNING, we believe you should be able to have both. In the creation of our machines, pods and marketplace, we have focused on making speciality coffee from independent roasters around the world easily accessible to all.
From our inception, we have also placed a commitment to sustainability at the centre of this ecosystem. This starts with our producers and the way in which they manufacture and market their products. We have a policy for our marketplace to be plastic-free, not just in the pods that we sell but also in the packaging in which they are delivered.
Similarly, we want to make sure that our customers can responsibly dispose of their pods once they have enjoyed them. Offering our customers the option to recycle their pods through Podback is central to allowing us to do this in the UK.
As a customer of Podback myself, I was determined for MORNING to join the scheme when we launched in the UK in 2022. I love the way Podback provides customers with lots of different options to recycle their pods. The network of local drop-off points across the UK also means that the scheme is just as efficient outside of London as it is in the capital, which I know is not always the case!
With the trend of conscientious consumption rising across all markets, we have an obligation as producers and manufacturers to provide customers with sustainable choices that allow them to enjoy our products responsibly.
More than that, as an industry we rely on the environment to provide a sustainable supply of high-quality coffee. It is, therefore, imperative that we do everything in our power to protect the planet so that we can keep enjoying the drink that we all love.
Being a member of Podback is a key part of MORNING’s efforts in this area. We’ve been pleased to see the positive response from customers since we started with Podback at the start of the year. We now send out 22% more Podback bags per month. We encourage recycling with our community by including a Podback recycling bag with every single order we send out.
Many of the independent roasters that we work with in the UK are already members of the scheme and we are encouraging those that are not to sign up. By giving customers the option to recycle their pods through Podback, we hope that we can continue to change the priorities of the coffee pod industry and help people enjoy speciality coffee in a convenient and sustainable manner.
Through Podback, used aluminium and plastic pods are reprocessed in the UK. Recycled aluminium pods are used in the manufacture of beverage cans and car components, and plastic coffee pods are recycled into durable plastic products including industrial packaging and building products.