UK-based supermarket chain Waitrose has announced its plan to sell its own-label home compostable coffee pods from December this year.
Image: Waitrose's own-label home compostable coffee pods. Photo: courtesy of Waitrose.
This is the next step in the supermarket fulfilling its commitment that all its own-label packaging will be widely recyclable, reusable or home compostable by 2025.
The four new Waitrose 1 coffee capsules will be compatible with Nespresso machines. All are Fairtrade certified and will be sold in cardboard packaging which will be widely recyclable. The coffee varieties will be from Colombia, Brazil, Peru (decaffeinated) and Italian style espresso.
It can sometimes be difficult to separate the small capsule from the coffee grounds inside for recycling. Coffee grounds are often used as a fertiliser, so making a home compostable version seemed an obvious environmentally-friendly choice. It’s estimated that a third of people in the UK own a coffee pod machine, which shows the demand for an environmentally-friendly solution.
Waitrose is already the only supermarket to stock The Eden Project’s home compostable coffee pods, launched March 2018.
Polly Astbury, coffee buyer at Waitrose, said:
“Our customers love coffee and worry about the waste pods can create. By being the first supermarket to launch its own home compostable coffee pods we’re really happy to be able to offer a solution.
“We’re committed to finding environmentally-friendly packaging alternatives and are excited by this next step.”
Source: Company Press Release