When I bought my Nespresso Coffee Maker I was concerned about the carbon footprint of my coffee habit.
On the one hand, by making my own coffee in my own cup, I feel that I have reduced the amount of waste I create since I stopped buying takeaway coffee in cardboard cups from Starbucks.
However, each time I have a cup of coffee I end up with metal cup leftover. I have read on the web how people reuse these cups. They scoop out the old coffee, refill with their own coffee and then seal with aluminium foil.
While I think it is great that people are reusing the cups a few times I don't think this would be for me, for two reasons.
1) I think I would find refilling a cup to be too inconvenient - the whole reason I love making this coffee is the convenience.
2) I'm sure you would be voiding the warranty on your machine by reusing capsules that you have refilled.
I think most people also refill their cups in order to keep the cost of their coffee down. They aren't actually doing it to reduce their waste production.
For me I think that a cup of coffee for about €0.40 is not too bad at all!!
Anyway back to recycling....
Here is how I will be recycling the capsules that I use at home and in work.
When I bought my machine I was given this bag to fill and then return to Brown Thomas.
As far as I am aware the used capsules are recycled to make the sides of one of the coffee maker machines (I think it is the Pixie). I think that is fairly awesome!!
Do you have a coffee maker? How do you feel about the carbon footprint of it???
We have a machine in my office and thankfully the capsules are recycled. I never really thought about the carbon footprint of the capsules, but I don't think I would ever want to reuse them.
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