aving worked with Nestlé and Jacobs Douwe Egberts UK for several years to develop beverage pod collection and recycling, 3Keel was delighted when these two partners announced in November 2020 that they were joining forces to create Podback. As a not-for-profit organisation, Podback is the UK’s first cross-industry collaboration of its kind within the coffee sector, providing several easy ways for UK consumers to recycle their coffee pods.

As Scheme Manager for Podback, 3Keel was instrumental in developing and maximising the effectiveness of the collaboration between the founding members and all partners, combining practical knowledge, programme management, and on-the-ground implementation skills to develop the end-to-end solution. Once launched in early 2021, Podback enabled UK coffee pod consumers of all member brands to recycle their pods.

Bringing the scheme to life involved coordinating a 40+ member project team from 10 partner organisations. We developed the scope through research and analysis of the recycling landscape and consumer behaviours. We built an understanding of the current PRN (packaging recovery note) system and anticipated future changes to regulations such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). We used extensive stakeholder management, facilitation, conceptualisation, programme management, and financial modelling, to develop a consumer-centric programme. This recognises that the key to driving participation in any recycling scheme is simplicity for the consumer. The programme includes three main collection channels; Kerbside, Bring-back and Handover@Home.

As the simplest route for consumers to recycle, kerbside collection was available in three local authorities for launch, with Podback aiming to recruit local authorities representing 50% of UK households within two years. Recognising that implementation of kerbside collection at scale would take time, 3Keel was also managing the Bring-back and Handover@Home routes, with consumers able to recycle their pods via Collect+Yodel parcel points from launch in order to attain full geographic coverage.