The city of Hamburg in Germany has banned coffee pods from state buildings as part of an environmental drive to reduce waste. As part of a guide to green procurement, the city has introduced a ban on buying ‘certain polluting products or product components’ with council money. The ban includes specific terms for ‘equipment for hot drinks in which portion packaging is used’ – singling out ‘Kaffeekapselmaschine,’ or coffee capsule machines.
“These portion packs cause unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation, and often contain polluting aluminium,” said a report. Jan Dube, spokesman for the Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy, said: “The capsules can’t be recycled easily because they are often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminium. It’s 6g of coffee in 3g of packaging,” he said. “We thought that these shouldn’t be bought with taxpayers’ money.”
Jens Kerstan, Hamburg’s senator for the environment, told the BBC that the move – which is part of a larger environmental drive – sends out an important signal. “With a purchasing power of several hundred millions of euros per annum, the city can help ensure that environmentally harmful products are purchased less frequently,” he said.
