I haven’t had the best track record when it comes to being environmentally friendly, especially when it comes to plastics. For years I just believed that everything plastic was just recycled. As long as I sorted out my rubbish into the right bins, no problem.
When I had my first child, pretty much every piece of equipment and toy was made of some sort of plastic. Some of it is better quality than others, but still plastic. It was about this time I realised that we just had so much stuff piling up about the house. Every day seemed to bring with it more plastic toys, more plastic packaging and more plastic bottles. It got to the point where we were having to ask the neighbours if we could put extra rubbish in their recycling bin.
Around this time, the David Attenborough documentary was on TV, which showed the extent of plastic that was building up in the oceans, damaging the ecosystem and killing marine life.
Reducing the amount of plastic we use
I’m a well-educated person, so I’m a little embarrassed that it took this to make me realize the problem. So, I began to look for ways to cut down plastic use. Especially single-use plastics. We made a few changes straight away such as stopping drinking bottled water. Instead, we invested in a few good-quality reusable bottles. We also bought some canvas shopping bags, which we keep in the car and take with us when we’re shopping. A local shop selling loose ingredients, rather than packed ones opened up next to us so we’re now able to cut the amount of plastic packaging we use too.
There were some other little changes I made, such as buying bamboo toothbrushes and reusable straws.
These were very easy lifestyle changes to make and while they may just be a drop in the ocean, they did drastically cut our use of plastic as a family.
One change I did struggle with was my use of plastic when it came to coffee drinking. I drink a lot of coffee (decaf mostly) and used to spend a fortune on it when I worked in the city centre in Newcastle, easily having two or three large coffees every day. I was spending over £10 on coffee, and that’s before you add on any snacks I bought too. So, when I was given a Nespresso coffee machine, I was delighted. Great coffee that I could make at home, that was really simple to make. Problem solved and I was saving a fortune every month.
Halo coffe pods
But when I was looking at our plastic use, I realised how many coffee pods I was using a week and it just seemed wasteful. I didn’t want to get back to buying my coffee every day (which wouldn’t have been easy since I began working from home), but I still wanted nice coffee. So I decided to buy a proper espresso coffee machine, filled with visions of me rivalling the best barista’s and making perfect gourmet coffee for all my friends and family. Truth is, I can be lazy, and going from coffee at the push of a button to faffing about with beans and thermometers just wasn’t for me.
I saw that a few brands start to advertise aluminium pods, but this just looked like swapping one problem for another. There also wasn’t a great range of coffee in these.
Luckily, there is a solution to this problem, Halo compostable coffee pods. They were created on the idea that you don’t have to sacrifice convenience while still doing what’s right for the planet. Their compostable pods are made from sugar cane, which can completely break down in 28 days even in a standard home composting environment. Many of the plastic pods we use in machines like Nespresso or Dolce Gusto will be around for hundreds of years.
Now, we don’t compost ourselves, but our neighbours do, so they are more than happy to take them off our hands. You don’t have to be composters to use them, they can be thrown away with other food waste and don’t have to be separated. Even better, the packaging is also made from sustainable products too and will break down in around 90 days.
Halo coffee pods are available to buy directly from their online shop in individual packs or through a subscription system that you can cancel at any point, so you’re not tied in to anything. You can choose to get them delivered at a frequency that suits you and your coffee drinking habits, anywhere from once a week to once a month and prices start from £26 for 40 pods with free delivery. Imagine how much 40 cups of coffee from your nearest coffee shop would cost?
You can choose from their specialist coffee ranges that include:
- House
- Curated – recommended by the Halo Head of Coffee (I want that job)
- Caffeinated Collection
- Decaffienated Collection
While we’re still not perfect when it comes to reducing our plastic use and overall impact on the environment, we’ve definitely come a long way as a family. I think the key for us at the moment is introducing one change at a time so that we’re not overwhelmed. Trying to juggling both of us working and two kids under five means that we’re always looking for ways to improve that we can achieve without a huge amount of disruption.
For now, though, I’m glad I didn’t have to give up my beloved coffee.
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