We love our coffee in Lane Cove and you can bet your sweet latte, that many Lane Cove homes have a Nespresso Machine and that means Nespresso Pods.  The pods have become a bit controversial. The former head of Nespresso, Jean-Paul Gaillard is claiming that coffee pods are killing the environment. In an interview with the ABC Jean-Paul Gaillard said that certain pods are made from a combination of plastics and aluminum with organic matter inside, the coffee pods are not biodegradable.  It apparently takes between 150 to 500 years for aluminum and plastic capsules to breakdown in landfill. Nespresso has taken steps to promote recycling and there are now several ways you can recycle your Nespresso Pods so they do not end up as landfill. Nespresso has taken steps to promote recycling and there are now several ways you can recycle your Nespresso Pods so they do not end up as landfill. Drop them off at Pureflowers Lane Cove Lane Cove is lucky enough to have a place where they can be recycled.  Pureflowers has a Lane Cove recycling program for Nespresso capsules. Pureflowers is participating in a nationwide environmental program to help recycle coffee capsules. Nespresso has joined with recycling and upcycling experts TerraCycle Australia to expand their recycling program at additional collection points around the country at florists, garden centres and nurseries. Lane Cove residents can now recycle their used Nespresso capsules at no cost by visiting Pure Flowers and dropping their capsules (sealed in any plastic bag which will also be recycled) into the in-store recycling collection box. “Pure Flowers has been delivering flowers in the Lane Cove area for 20 years. This program is an exciting initiative for our florist that’s good for the planet and makes recycling capsules accessible for locals. We’re happy to chat to customers that drop in and why not grab some fresh flowers on your way!” said Ludmila Fedorovitch, co-owner Pureflowers. The capsules will then be recycled at Nespresso’s recycling plant. Only Nespresso capsules made for in-home consumption are accepted as part of this program.  You can find out more about Nespresso’s recycling programme here. Drop them off at Nespresso Chatswood Chase. Simply collect and deposit your used capsules at the Chatswood Chase Nespresso Boutique. Become a Bulk Collector (great for stratas or for a local small business) Any Nespresso Club Member (free to join) can become a bulk collector of used Nespresso aluminum capsules, free of charge. Whether you are a Strata Manager, a Small Business Owner or simply a Club Member who is passionate about recycling, you can join our Bulk Collection Recycling Program. Simply request a bulk recycling box that will hold up to 1,500 used capsules, and we will collect it when it’s full, all free of charge. Want a Bulk Collection Recycling Box? Call 1800 623 033 Send via Australia Post Nespresso has recently partnered with Australia Post, making recycling as easy as finding your nearest Post Box. Simply pop up to 130 used Nespresso aluminum capsules into one of the specially designed satchels, and drop into your nearest Post Office or Red Street Australia Post Box. When you buy the satchels, Nespresso will cover the cost of the postage.

Your Business is Our Business: Elegant Outdoors Mike and Susan migrated from London in 2002 in search of a new venture. Looking for a change in career and a fresh start, they stumbled across a business for sale on the corner of Rohini Street & the Pacific Highway, at Turramurra. With some much needed improvements and upgrades made in the early years, Elegant Outdoors started to take shape. Fast forward fourteen years and the successful garden centre affectionately known as “The Jewel in Turramurra’s Crown” is thriving in the hub of a supportive village community, where local residents have become loyal customers and in many cases, good friends. Mike and Susan have been banking with Turramurra Community Bank since 2004 (not long after the branch opened) and value the friendly service and likeminded community semblance provided to them. Offering a broad range of plants including flowering perennials, annuals, succulents, topiary, feature trees, indoor & hedging plants, Elegant Outdoors also sell a variety of decorative pots, water features, and garden art, along with all the gardening essentials like mulch and plant food. It’s not just the garden that this little gem caters for, with a gift and homewares shop located inside the centre aptly named “HOME with Elegant Outdoors.” Products change seasonally keeping things fresh and enticing for customers. Along with the large offering of plants and giftwares, Elegant Outdoors offer plastic plant pot recycling. Plastic pots can be dropped off at the garden centre, where they will then be taken to a recycling depot and eventually broken down and made into new pots! Every little bit helping reduce the input into landfill. Mike and Susan are proud of the industry awards they have won over the years, including; “Best Small Garden Centre in NSW & ACT” and “Best Small Garden Centre in Australia.” Susan attributes her successful business to having a great team working alongside her, upholding sound principles and ethics, offering exemplary customer service and maintaining a positive can-do attitude. Fast Fact: Did you know that Elegant Outdoors is a collection point for empty Nespresso pods? A great initiative by Nespresso, Terracycle and Elegant Outdoors, which typically sees 50kg of empty pods collected and saved from landfill each week!Pop in and say hi to Mike & Susan next time you walk past Elegant Outdoors, they would love to welcome you into their beautiful garden centre.

Securing the Outstanding Achievement in Packaging Stewardship prize at the 2016 Australian Packaging Covenant Awards, along with winning the Shipping and Transport category, was a reflection of the effort Australia Post has dedicated to its sustainability goals. It also has introduced a free mailing satchel collection program with Terracycle, providing a recycling solution for a product that cannot be dealt with by most councils’ kerbside collection services. “They are fantastic at their job, at keeping letters and parcels dry, clean, safe and secure,” says Andrew. “We’re looking for the most sustainable solution for the material, but while we’re doing that, we’ve put in place a free recycling program.” Australia Post customers simply register on the Terracycle website and once they have collected enough prepaid standard and padded mailing satchels, they can request a pre-paid shipping label. It also provides the returns process for the MobileMuster program through its network. It has provided 245,000 satchels to divert more than 62.6 tonnes of mobile phones and accessories from landfill since 2008. This postal return approach has been refined for a partnership with Nespresso, launched this past September, which is a particular source of pride for Andrew. Australia Post started conversations with Nespresso about two years ago about its challenge with its aluminium coffee capsules. They are recyclable but not through kerbside recycling bins as they retain coffee grounds. It needed an easy, convenient system for customers to collect those capsules and return to its recycling facility in NSW. It also needed to build on the collection program through 18 Nespresso shops and 300 florists, which it introduced in 2010. In an industry first, Australia Post designed a special mailing satchel for consumers to return their used Nespresso coffee capsules by post. This has enabled Nespresso customers across the country to recycle their used coffee capsules, as they return them by posting the satchel at any of Australia Post’s posting boxes or post offices, almost 20,000 lodgement points. Andrew cites the work Australia Post has done with Terracycle around cigarette butt recycling as a prime example. “We connected Terracycle with Clean Up Australia and equipped the huge number of volunteers on Clean Up Australia Day with cigarette butt recycling satchels as part of their kits,” he says. Waste Management Review_DecJan

TerraCycle chatted to 2NURFM about Earth Day and signing up to TerraCycle's recycling programs.

Nespresso has partnered with Terracycle and Toll Couriers to improve the accessibility of the program. You can now drop off coffee pods at selected participating florists all around Australia.

Hornsby's Decluttering Diva has teamed up with TerraCycle and L'Oreal Australia for a nationwide program aimed at recycling used cosmetics, skin and hair care products.

A radio interview on Sydney radio station 2RRR about Earth Month and how to get involved with TerraCycle.

An important part of living more lightly on this earth is to reduce the use of resources and the amount of items going to landfill. Nothing in the natural world is wasted. Instead the output from one system goes on to feed another system. For instance a trees that dies, slowly returns to the earth in a process that feeds numerous micro-organisms and provides nutrients for other plants to grow. Sadly humans have created a production system where commodities are designed to be thrown away when we no longer need them. This has resulted in the creation of large waste sites where festering mounds of discarded materials leach toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment and use valuable land space. To see a landfill site in all its ugly stinking mess provides a striking example of why we need to change our system of production and consumption. The Adelaide Sustainability Centre ran a series of demonstrations at WOMAD this year around this topic. Themed as “Zero Waste Life Hacks” they covered a number of facets of daily life from seed saving and composting, DIY home products, how to darn a sock and how to make bricks from bottles. A number of useful resources and links from these WOMAD workshops can be accessed by clicking here. The Adelaide Sustainability Centre regularly runs a number of workshops that are designed to help us learn skills to live more lightly on this planet. Sign up for the newsletter and keep up to date with the latest workshops .   Further resources:

• Story of Stuff Movie
• Circular Economy Australia
• Cradle to Cradle Manufacturing

Australian Zero-Waste blogs:

• The Rouge Ginger
• Treading my Own Path

The Adelaide Sustainability Centre is a drop off point for:

• Hard to recycle products including Oral Care products, Mailing Satchels and Beauty Products through a partnership with TerraCycle Australia.
• Mobiles and phone accessories through a partnership with Mobile Muster.

Recycling is a win-win situation. Not only are you helping save the planet, but you’re also clearing the clutter out from your life. How do you know you’re doing it right? From bottle caps to aerosol cans, here’s a look at some of the things you may not think to recycle – but actually can. 7. Coffee pods Those single-serve coffee pods are notoriously wasteful. On average, Australians use one a week each. Do your bit to help by gathering those used pods in a plastic bag and dropping them at your nearest Nespresso store. 10. Makeup When was the last time you cleaned out that storage area under your sink? We shudder to think how many cracked, expired, half-used beauty products we’d find under there. Enter TerraCycle, who’ve teamed up with L’Oreal Australia to set up the Beauty Products Recycling Program. Simply fill a box, go online and download a shipping label, that way you can print and post it for free to the local recycling depot. Check out other Terracycle programs, including the Oral Care Recycling Program, allowing you to recycle used toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers.

Next term, Sacred Heart will take on an exciting new recycling initiative to help reduce waste and fundraise for charity! TerraCycle recycles the “non-recyclable” and from Term Two, Sacred Heart will have two new TerraCycle bins on site. The first recycles oral care products such as old toothbrushes, floss containers, empty toothpaste tubes and caps, empty packaging from toothpaste and toothbrushes. For every kilogram of recycled packaging, we raise money to donate towards a charity. Our school also goes into a competition to win $1000 and a park bench made of…recycled oral care products! The second box recycles empty beauty care packaging and much like the oral care recycling, we earn money for every kilogram collected. Accepted waste includes: Cosmetics packaging such as used lipstick and lip gloss, mascara, eye shadow, bronzer, foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, lip liner, and concealer packaging. Hair care packaging such as used shampoo and conditioner bottles and caps, hair gel tubes and caps, hair spray and hair treatment packaging. Skin care packaging such as lip balm, face moisturiser, face and body wash soap dispensers and tubes, body and hand lotion dispensers and tubes and shaving foam packaging. So…start collecting your oral care and beauty product waste over the holidays, and watch this space for more information!