A BENCH made entirely out of recycled coffee pods has been unveiled in Sandhurst.

The project, which saw a partnership between Bracknell Forest Council, Nescafé Dolce Gusto and SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, saw a six-month coffee pod collection trial start in 2017.

Residents who registered to participate in the trial on the Nescafé Dolce Gusto website or signed up via the council were given pink bags to store their used coffee pods, which were then collected at the kerbside along with their mixed recycling.

The coffee pods collected during the trial were sent to TerraCycle for processing, where they were shredded and separated into plastic and metals.

Approximately 1.5 tonnes of plastic was collected from 382 households – about the weight of the average car.

A portion of the material collected was used to make a recycled plastic bench which was unveiled by Cllr Andy Blatchford, the Mayor of Sandhurst.

Nestlé, the company which owns Nescafé Dolce Gusto, is working towards its ambition to make 100% of its packaging either recyclable or reusable by 2025.

Councillor Dorothy Hayes MBE, Bracknell Forest Council’s Executive Member for Environment said: “Thank you to all the Bracknell Forest residents who took part in the trial, trials like this are extremely important as they help inform how best to collect and recycle different types of packaging.”

Warren Plaskett, Marketing Manager at Nescafé Dolce Gusto said: “Our 2025 ambition shows how important the issue of sustainable packaging is for Nestlé and this trial is one of the ways that Nescafé Dolce Gusto is working to make our pods better for the environment.

“This bench makes for a great, lasting symbol of the success of the project but we now have more work to do. Feedback has been excellent, we know that more than 90% of the residents who took part in the trial would be keen to participate in a permanent scheme and making that a reality will be our next aim working in partnership with both SUEZ and the council.”

Kim Shaw, Area Manager for SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said: “Multi-sector trials like this are an important step towards capturing more materials for recycling and are crucial to meeting our goal of living in a society with no more waste. We are pleased to celebrate the partnership and to see the coffee pods we collected put to good use back here in Bracknell Forest.”