A pro-active trial towards recycling used coffee grounds and tea leaves.
Used tea leaves and coffee ground waste may not be the first point of call when you think of sustainable recycling, but it is a growing problem that West Midlands vending machine operator Coinadrink Limited is trying to tackle.
Learn how we are partnering with Veolia, one of the biggest waste management firms in the world, to present an attractive solution to our hot drinks vending customers.
Why recycle used coffee grounds and tea leaves?
Tea and coffee fuels workplaces all over the world. Here in the UK specifically, 44% of coffee consumed out of the home is done so in the workplace.
And 48% of staff in a recent survey carried out by UK Tea and Infusions Association said they believe a tea break is an important part of the working day.
Having been in the vending and refreshment business for over 60 years, we’re well aware that tea and coffee are synonymous with the working day, but that presents a sustainability issue that businesses may not even know exists.
One estimate suggests that as much as 6 million tons of spent coffee grounds go straight into landfill every year. And as these coffee grounds break down, they release methane gas.
This has a greenhouse effect 28 times higher than carbon dioxide and is a significant contributor towards global warming and climate change.
As one of the most respected vending machine and refreshment operators in the UK, we feel we have a responsibility to act sooner rather than later.
Our trial with Veolia.
We recently reached out to Veolia to work together and find a solution to the problem.
The company provide a recycling service that collects used tea leaves and coffee grounds from our site once a week. These are then taken to be recycled into things such as fertiliser, compost and biofuel.
Biofuel represents energy captured from renewable sources. Learn more about its sustainable properties here.
To play our part, our operators collect these coffee grounds from customer sites when they attend as part of our operated vending machine service.
As you may have seen on our social media platforms yesterday, this waste is then get deposited into a bin that sits at the back of our warehouse.
Coinadrink is no stranger to utilising the appropriate waste streams on site and in the past, we have partnered with other organisations to help make a difference. Where Veolia differ to these, however, is through the ability to accept tea leaves in addition to coffee grounds.
For now, this is a trial service with just a select number of routes being used. Depending on the practicalities of the process and the feedback we receive from our customers and own team, we hope to make this permanent in due course.
Should this be the case, be in no doubt that we will need more than just the single waste bin that we currently use. In just two weeks across just three operating routes, we collected approximately 145KG of used tea leaves and coffee grounds!
Just think how much difference this could make if we extended the service to our entire customer base…
More news coming soon…
Our team were impressed by the quantity of tea and coffee waste after the first collection.
Should we extend the service further, it opens up numerous possibilities that mean our tea and coffee can be put to good use even after it has been enjoyed. For businesses that are particularly conscious about their carbon footprint, this is a welcome breakthrough.
We will keep you updated on each collection, informing you of just how much used coffee grounds and tea leaves will go onto be recycled.
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