[Closed] Eco Friendly Pod Coffee Machines?

Nespresso will collect pods and compost the coffee and recycle the aluminium. As the pods are out of patent then there are third parties doing compostible pods.

Whether the above matters at all depends on whether the people using it can be bothered to separate out the pods from the general waste.

I'd probably go for nespresso as compatible pods are widely available and you might be able to get a deal with a load of free pods included to tide you over.

Thanks @johnnystorm. Customers are very good here with recycling so we try to do as much as possible.

Does Nespresso taste ok? We currently use Nescafe sachets which are foul.

Edit - just got the point that I could buy aftermarket pods so shop around.

TS

Lavazza pods are compostable

No such thing as a eco friendly pod machine.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.  It fails on the first of these as they increase the amount of "stuff" used.  Recycling or composting reduces the extra environmental footprint it does not eliminate it

A cafetiere is probably the greenest option I would think

Personally I think that the genuine pods are by and large nice to drink black. Third party ones are of course more of a mixed bag!

One thing worth noting is that Nespresso originals will only produce a small espresso coffee. Lovers of mugs of coffee might be disappointed. Its better to make an americano by adding hot water rather than running the same pod a second time.

The new big Vertuo nespresso pods are better for big coffess but you are stuck with genuine pods for those.

They're fine, just get one that does old-style pods not the new Vertuo ones - the former are out of design protection so anyone can make compatibles. Some are better than others for recycle-ability, if you're stocking the pods too then the Nespresso pods can be sent back free for them to (hopefully) recycle.

Ardent environmentalists and coffee geeks will probably bring their own solution anyway.

If you want to save the environment don't get one 😀

Thanks folks.

Taking the points above about not using them at all @i_scoff_cake and @tjagain. It's more production, more energy, more waste.

We already provide cafetieres so maybe the way to go is to buy in some good quality coffee and provide that in our hospitality pack.

I've emailed a couple of wholesale tea/coffee providers in Edinburgh - see what they say.

TS

ESE coffee pods can be used in a standard espresso machine instead of ground coffee so you could spec something like one of the cheaper DeLonghi's, e.g. the Icona, and have a variety of the pods in your hospitality pack?

The ones I had were compostable so hopefully meets the low waste requirement.

We already provide cafetieres so maybe the way to go is to buy in some good quality coffee and provide that in our hospitality pack.

That's a much nicer idea!

Also Nestlé are evil, how do people still not know this?

Any machine in a self-catering holiday home will be killed within the first few weeks of the season! 🙂

Cafetieres are cheap and easy to replace.

Are you providing the eco friendly pods? If not your guests are unlikely to they will just get whatever. If you provide pods I bet lots will go missing one way or another. Cafetiere or basic espresso machine that will work with ground coffee would be my choice.

Also Nestlé are evil, how do people still not know this?

Aldi do a good range of nestle-esque chocolate if you don't want to give nestle money.

apologies for the thread tangent

In a self-catering property I'd expect a pod machine to be cheap to buy but prohibitively expensive to run.

Look to the US, home of the electricity supply too puny to power a kettle. Every guest house I've stayed in has had a coffee machine, and every one of those has been a cheap drip-filter machine.

Cafetiere or v60 with recycled paper filters - both options are cheaper than pod machines, and a bag of good, locally-roasted coffee would probably work out well. A local roastery might also use it as an opportunity to offer a subscription discount or similar with the bag. My local place, Chimney Fire, bags its beans in 1kg sacks that are compostable.
We've stayed at self catering places with pod machines before, usually with a handful of pods included, and it's always been surprisingly expensive to buy extra pods in the shops - so much so that I usually just chuck the aeropress and a bag of ground coffee in the bag when I'm packing now.
Generally the idea of a holiday home is that you can relax the pace a bit, so a teapot and cafetiere are a much nicer option than a (possibly broken) pod machine.

Rave coffee do compostible nespresso pods
https://ravecoffee.co.uk/collections/compostable-coffee-pods

You just pop the whole pod in the compost bin when done.
Nice coffee and well priced..

I have a dolche gusto machine.
You can get recyclable pods for them that have a stainless steel body and silicone lids.
You just clean them out , reload them and use as many times as you like.
Once my stash has run out , i shall invest in some

It’s slightly more complicated than just the waste issue if you want to be eco friendly. If you look at the whole supply chain, apparently pod machines come out really rather well because (iirc) a)they make more drink per amount of coffee and therefore require relatively small amounts of the stuff to be grown and shipped around the world and b) they actually don’t take loads of energy compared to say an espresso pot.

I’m failing to find the study right now but as someone who decided against a pod machine for exactly the reasons posted I found it interesting

I'd stick to a press of whatever type and some locally sourced ground coffee. Snobs and normals should both appreciate the nice coffee.

Linky

I can’t find the actual study but this is the one I was thinking of.

While I much prefer ground coffee, I’m presuming you’ll be supplying particularly small small bags of ground if you’re not going down the pod route? Every pod is single serve so remains fresh, whereas ground goes off pretty quickly once the bag is opened (and arguably as soon as it’s ground).

Since when has coffee been eco friendly?

Isn’t the answer a bean to cup machine. Beans go in coffee comes out. The grounds go in the compost?

As someone who a) drinks coffee every morning and b) stays in self catering places a bit, the answer is a cafetiere and a bag/tin of ground coffee in the fridge. Posh ground coffee if you like, but I wouldn't bother.

Snobs and normals should both appreciate the nice coffee.

Normals won't notice nice coffee (they're more likely to notice a nice tin, so put normal coffee in a nice tin), snobs gonna snob so there's no point worrying about them.

The podback scheme exists but it's coverage and other restrictions might not suit your needs.
The coffee from pods does taste nice and it's clean and simple to use. I avoid the milk/creamer pods and prefer fresh milk, which helps the eco bit too.
If the podback scheme works for you then give them a try

@swanny853 - Would disagree a bit with that ‘study’ to be honest. It uses a strange narrow view on impact in terms of energy during brewing but discounts other factors like environment impact of the pods, junky plastic pod machines that are scrap after 1-2 years.

Still think a cafetière/Moka pot and a handgrinder would be unbeatable overall in terms of environmental impact.

I worked out that my wife and I would use over 2,000 coffee pods in a year given our espresso based drink consumption. I can’t get my head around how that much extra packaging is better than buying whole beans in 1kg bags that could be recycled. I expect my machine and grinder to last 10-15 years at least, since they are repairable.

Aye, I’ve no skin in the game as far as the report being right goes, but it did make me think about it more broadly. And it is a tricksy one- how do you balance up the relative impact of packaging waste, energy cost to make, energy cost to transport, amount of coffee neeeding to be grown in the first place etc etc.

Even on packaging- one pod per drink seems bad, but how does the weight of packaging to drinks ratio compare to ground or beans in bag that’s also likely made of multiple materials?

These are just guesstimates whilst drinking a nice Americano on a Sat morning. Not counting industrial waste for anodised aluminium manufacture, or associated costs of using an intermediate distributor/retailer and not selling direct to the consumer 😉 Just something to consider.

1,000g of coffee beans, ~40g of packaging, 56 coffees at ~18g, some bags are 100% ldpe so recyclable, ~0.7g of consumer packaging per serving, maybe ~1g if shipped in a second bag. Machine life expected >10 years.

Nespresso ~5.5g of coffee per pod, ~0.5g virgin aluminium, 2g cardboard packaging, ~0.5g plastic wrapping, ~3g of consumer packaging per serving. Machine life expected <3 years.

https://www.ecoandbeyond.co/articles/coffee-pods-bad-for-the-environment/

We have a bean to cup machine at home, and enjoy nice coffee

As above the real answer is a plunger or stove top at most.

We will take our own bag of ground coffee.

If we stay anywhere with machines we don’t use them because 1. We don’t know how to use them 2. They tend to be broken 3. Go to a nice local coffee shop

Personally I wouldn’t bother with a machine of any sort.

i'd genuinely love walkinginto a room i was staying and finding a cafetiere and nice coffe instead of instant of a pod machine.

get up make a massive cafetiere return to bed to drink it all with my other half.

if you want to go super fancy...teasmaid

Another vote for cafetiere rather than pod machine here. Or a drip filter machine with an insulated carafe rather than a hotplate.

My experience of pod machines in self catering accomodation is that they're often broken and they make really underwhelming coffee. I'd even honestly rather have posh instant than nespresso.

Some great answers here thanks!

Cafetieres it is. I'll buy in big bags of decent quality coffee and decant it into small airtight jars/tins for each visit. The suppliers I contacted haven't replied yet so I may be back on here looking for tea/coffee suppliers next week.

18 turnovers a week should keep the coffee fresh (he says hopefully).

TS

18 turnovers a week

Are you renting rooms by the hour? 😉

I may be back on here looking for tea/coffee suppliers next week.

We really like Rave Coffee

However I would definitely look at posting people to good local coffee shops too.

Coffee Compass do some very nice crowd pleasers in terms of medium-dark blends and are not too pricey generally.

Normally prefer the lighter side of things but even I quite like their Cherry Cherry (dark cherry chocolates), Brighton Lanes or Sweet Bourbon blends which are a bit nuttier.

No such thing as a eco friendly pod machine.

+1

When did a nation of tea drinkers become so ****y that they need some bullshit coffee to start their day?