Monday 23 September 2013

Consumer waste - Nespresso Capsules




 
Nespresso Citiz - Image : www.nespresso.com




So I'm not going to lie and say I do not use the DeLonghi Citiz Nespresso coffee machine. We have one at home and its quite a useful machine. Before we had this we found that the grounded coffee we used went off quite quickly as you would open a bag and then use a sufficient amount for that session, the rest would be static until the next coffee. 

Now each coffee has a dedicated capsule, developed by Nestle. The capsules come in many different aromas. For each coffee, the chromed lid is opened and a capsule is placed inside. The lid is then pushed down which in the same action the capsule is pierced ready for water to flow through from the water reservoir. 

Once the combined water and coffee has stopped pouring. The capsule can now be dropped into the capsule bay below. I must reinforce that the capsule is still intact, but just with holes on the top foil head and 4 main holes on the end. There is one massive downside to this, that is the used coffee is still confined to the capsule. What is the user going to do? Put it in the rubbish bin onwards to the landfill or individually cut each one open and scrape the coffee out for the organic waste bin in the backyard (Which I did do, see below for pictures)......We all know that answer, rubbish bin sadly. A lot of these capsules around the world would end up in the landfill. Where the coffee will enter the stream of toxic, contaminated waste.

Where as it could be waste that equals food. Food for the environment. What ones waste should equals another food. The coffee could be put in with the organic waste bin and degrade with other food waste and then be cycled through out the garden. Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the way we make things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart highlights the need for this sort of thinking.

I understand why the capsule was developed. It keeps the machine clean and mess free. It also makes the process of making a coffee very efficient. But for the sake of convenience it fulfills one need and creates two problems on the other end.








The worms are going to love this, coffee overload

It took a while to cut every single one open!


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