Coffee pod scheme has been success

COFFEE pods are increasingly popular, not least thanks to the endorsement of George Clooney.

It’s a simple system. You pop the pod in the machine, press a button and then out comes the coffee. But there’s a little container left to get rid of and that leaves us with a problem.

Luckily, we have a way to deal with this waste locally. Cheltenham’s pioneering Podback initiative on the recycling of coffee pods recently passed two milestones.

The first milestone was to reach a total of more than half a million coffee pods collected kerbside since the initiative was launched in the Spring.

Cheltenham was not only the first local authority to launch its scheme, but was also the first to reach 500,000 by a large margin.

The second milestone was to be the first local authority to be rewarded for this performance by Podback (which is backed by the manufacturers of coffee pods) with funding for the planting of a local “pocket forest” of 300 trees.

Last week 300 saplings of native tree varieties were planted at Cheriton Park Hillview in an area behind Morrison’s supermarket and next to Greatfield school. Appropriately, coffee grounds formed part of the initial mulching.

The Podback initiative has multiple environmental benefits. It delivers trees to reduce the global warming effects of carbon dioxide and increase local biodiversity.

Through the scheme huge numbers of aluminium and plastic coffee pods are recycled into new products.

And the used coffee grounds are recycled into fertiliser.

Cheltenham Borough Council declared a climate emergency in July 2019 and has since set the ambitious target of reducing its overall carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2030.

Two key areas of focus towards this goal are how we manage our waste and tree planting.

Although we shouldn’t overstate the benefits of tree planting (it can’t solve all our problems and lofty targets can do more harm than good) it does help absorb pollutants including carbon dioxide (CO2). Recycling helps save natural resources and reduces the ultimate waste of landfill and incineration - both of which produce CO2. Cheltenham can be proud of this project.

Councillors Iain Dobie and Max Wilkinson