Pret A Manger joins Podback scheme for recycling at-home coffee pods
Pret A Manger has become the first UK food-to-go retailer to become a member of the Podback recycling scheme, helping customers to recycle their aluminium Pret at-home coffee pods.
Pret’s coffee was launched as an at-home coffee retail range in May 2020. First available in two ground coffee options and one whole bean blend, Pret expanded this range in July 2021 by introducing two aluminium coffee pod blends, Espresso and Classic, which are compatible with Nespresso® coffee machines. Pret at-home coffee pods are available for purchase from Pret shops, Ocado, Sainsburys, Tesco and Amazon.
The coffee pods are now fully recyclable through the Podback programme.
Podback, created by Nestlé and Jacobs Douwe Egberts UK (JDE UK), is the UK’s first nationwide, not-for-profit service providing customers with several easy ways to recycle their coffee pods, whether they are aluminium or plastic. Through Podback, used aluminium pods are turned into ingots and used in the manufacture of new products – such as beverage cans – while the used coffee grounds go through anaerobic digestion to produce a combination of biogas and soil improver.
Rick Hindley, executive director of Podback, said: “Pret is the first food-to-go retailer to join Podback as a member. Expanding the scheme to include more brands has been one of our priorities since launching last year, so we’re thrilled to have Pret on-board. We welcome other retailers and brands to join to make it the scheme even more inclusive for consumers.”
Guy Meakin, UK managing director of Pret A Manger, said: “We’re always looking for new ways to reduce our impact on the environment, whether through introducing coffee cup recycling stations in-shop or our 50p reusable cup discount. Now that our coffee is increasingly enjoyed in homes around the country, we wanted to find a solution that would help our customers recycle their Pret coffee pods easily. We’re excited to join the Podback scheme to make this possible.”
