Happy New Year! After a promising first nine months in operation, I begin the year full of hope that 2022 will see Podback build on the progress it has made so far and continue the scheme’s growth to make it easier for all consumers to recycle their coffee pods.
Podback ended 2021 on a high by welcoming four independent coffee brands onto the scheme in December. In adding Artisan Coffee Co, Allpress Espresso, Colonna Coffee and Café Palmieri by Jomad Coffee to our list of members, we increased the range and variety of pods that can be recycled through the scheme, making it that bit more convenient for consumers.
Over the coming weeks, these brands will be integrating Podback fully into their systems and updating their customers directly. Customers can then fill our recycling bags with their used pods and take them to their nearest Yodel Collect+ drop-off point for collection. Meanwhile, those who live in our partner local authorities can put their bags full of pods on their kerbside for collection by the council’s recycling teams.
After ending the year on a high, I was delighted that we could keep up this momentum into January and start the new year with two more local authorities joining Podback. At the start of the month, we announced new partnerships with Ipswich Borough Council and Exeter City Council, which will see them implement kerbside collection of coffee pods. This means that, from 24 January, residents of these cities will join those in Cheltenham, South Derbyshire, Oxford and Chichester in recycling their pods alongside their regular household recycling, meaning that this option is now available to more than 700,000 people.
We hope to extend this even further in the coming months, with discussions ongoing with several other councils about introducing kerbside collections in their local areas before the end of March. This raises the exciting prospect of Podback’s kerbside collection being available to more than 1 million residents before the first anniversary of the scheme’s launch in April.
This potential milestone is just one of the things that we have to look forward to in the coming months. As more and more consumers sign up to recycle their pods through the scheme, we are working to grow our internal team and extend our external partnerships to help create a more sustainable coffee sector for all.
If you would like to find out more or speak about partnering with Podback, please contact myself and the wider team at contact@podback.org.
