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Compostable tea bags and coffee pods become new standard
22 September 2020
An earlier version of this article was based on an erroneous message from the newspaper Trouw that in the context of a new Green Deal it was agreed that the government would pay money to producers to enable the switch to compostable tea bags and coffee pods. We were alerted to this error by the Royal Dutch Coffee and Tea Association, and therefore modified the article.
From 1 January 2021, tea bags and coffee pods may be disposed off with fruit, vegetable and garden waste (GFT). Rijkswaterstaat, waste processors and the Coffee & Tea Association of the Netherlands have made agreements with producers as part of a new Green Deal. That is good news.
But what about coffee cups?
Win-win
This arrangement should have been made a long time ago. Because tea leaves are 100 per cent organic, people throw tea bags in the GFT. But this should not be allowed as the bags are often made of plastic and cannot be composted. The waste processors fail in removing all the plastic from the GFT waste and microplastics end up in the compost. In addition, an estimated 88 million kilos of compostable tea leaves and coffee grounds are lost every year. This is incinerated in the plastic bags with the other residual waste—a waste of all that organic material.
Thanks to this agreement, there will be soon:
- more clarity for the consumer
- a cleaner GFT supply
- more compost
It seems a win-win situation.
Coffee cups
If all brands offer their coffee and tea in plastic-free packaging, the Waste Separation Guide of Milieu Centraal will also be adapted. But what will Milieu Centraal later prescribe for the coffee cups? Which waste bin should they be placed in? They are made of plastic and aluminium and may, therefore, only be disposed of with residual waste. The confusion among consumers will continue to exist. They may think that from now on coffee cups will also be allowed in the GFT bin. As a result, the GFT stream will continue to face pollution with these cups after 1 January.
It is up to the producers to solve this problem as well.
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