The renowned natural historian Sir David Attenborough recently brought the importance of living more sustainably sharply into focus when his documentary series Blue Planet II was shown in the US, UK and elsewhere. Viewers were shocked to see plastic rubbish polluting the Earth’s waters and endangering the extraordinary creatures that call them home. As the programme pointed out, there may be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050, unless people everywhere take steps to reduce environmental damage.
The planet is incredibly precious but increasingly being put under pressure due to plastic pollution and other vast, man-made problems. Attenborough’s well-known passion for protecting not only the oceans but every part of the natural world strikes a chord with us at Bodum®. Treating the environment with respect and helping you to develop a more eco-friendly lifestyle is at the heart of everything we do. Make taste, not waste– that’s our motto, and it defines our approach to the way we live and work.
Sustainability (that is, looking after the planet’s resources, using them wisely and living in harmony with the environment) has surely never been more important than it is now. The scale of today’s environmental issues may seem overwhelming. However, any positive changes individuals make to their daily lives can, when considered collectively, make a huge difference.
Problems with Single-Use Coffee Capsules and Paper Filters
When you want to pursue a greener way of life, your starting point could be as simple as adopting a sustainable brewing method when you make a cup of joe. Coffee is the world’s favourite drink, with around two billion cups being consumed each day, according to the British Coffee Association. Imagine how much waste would be avoided if every serving was made sustainably, i.e. without single-use items such as coffee capsules or paper filters.
Coffee capsules or pods are often made of a mixture of materials (typically, plastic and aluminium, topped with foil or paper) which means they can’t be processed at standard recycling plants. Billions end up at landfill sites each year, where they may take anything up to half a century to break down. The capsules have therefore earned a reputation for being ‘an environmental menace’, as BBC News explains.
Paper filters are also linked to environmental problems. As they rob coffee of many of its natural oils, which get trapped in the fibres, they can’t easily be used to make recycled paper. What’s more, the sustainable lifestyles blog Dōt advises against composting any filters that have been bleached with the chemical chlorine during the manufacturing process, as they may upset gardens’ delicate ecosystems.
Simple, Sustainable Slow Coffee Brewing Methods
Thankfully, you don’t need single-use capsules or filters to make satisfying coffee.
As Jørgen Bodum, our CEO and son of our founder, emphasises: ‘Good coffee beans, a glass beaker, a steel filter, and freshly boiled water is all that is needed to brew the world’s best cup of coffee, and that is how it has always been.’ Any disposable add-ons are extraneous. Alongside slow coffee, sustainability has always been of central importance to Bodum®. When we launched our first French press, the award-winning Bistro, in the 1970s, it was selected as the most environmentally friendly coffee press by the international media.
All of our coffee makers are designed to enable you to brew delicious, reinvigorating slow coffee in a sustainable way. You might like to start your slow coffee adventure with a wonderfully simple yet stylish French press, pour over or coffee dripper. If you favour a more theatrical brewing experience, our eye-catching, easy-to-use vacuum/siphon coffee makers are bound to capture your attention. Then why not branch out into cold brew coffee for refreshing iced drinks? Whichever Bodum® coffee maker you choose, you can rest assured that you’ll never need disposable capsules or filters again. So you can save money while helping to save the planet. What’s more, by using freshly ground coffee instead of the contents of a capsule, and an integrated, reusable filter instead of a paper version, you’ll preserve more of the beans’ natural oils for a more rounded flavour.
It’s worth pointing out that despite its name, slow coffee doesn’t take long to make at all, so it’s perfect even when you’re busy. You’ll be enjoying a cup in minutes!
Travel Mugs: a Greener Alternative to Takeaway Cups
What about when you want a fantastic cup of coffee on the go? That’s where Bodum®Travel Presses and Travel Mugs come in. They’re a reliable, reusable alternative to the takeaway cups available from many coffee shops and cafés.
Research-led news resource The Conversation has highlighted the fact that 2.5 billion disposable cups, used for coffee and other drinks, are thrown away annually in the UK alone. Sadly, single-use cups litter urban and rural areas around the world. Even when disposed of properly, they raise environmental concerns. Many paper cups are lined with plastic in an attempt to prevent leaks, and this mixture of materials makes them incredibly difficult to process. As a result, only about 0.1% of disposable drinkware is recycled.
As well as being more sustainable than takeaway cups, our travel presses and mugs make coffee, tea and other beverages more enjoyable. They’re designed to keep drinks at the optimum temperature for longer, while their sleeves make them more comfortable to carry. Use a travel press or mug instead of throwaway drinkware and you can say goodbye to other disposable items too, from single-use coffee stirrers to carry trays, further reducing waste.
Try a Loose Leaf Tea Press Instead of Non-Biodegradable Bags
If asked what tea bags are made of, most tea drinkers would probably say paper. However, the vast majority also contain single-use plastic, which is intended to seal the bags and stop them falling apart in hot water.
That’s unsettling news when you want to live more sustainably. As the green lifestyles blog Moral Fibres laments, the presence of disposable plastic means the tea bags aren’t completely biodegradable. Some tea bags are sold in single-use plastic packaging too, compounding the problem. Another issue is that, like paper filters for coffee, tea bags are often chemically bleached.
To enable you to enjoy the purest taste and eliminate non-biodegradable tea bag waste, we’ve designed beautiful tea presses and pots for any kind of loose leaf tea. The permanent, integrated filters let the leaves swirl freely while preventing them from ending up in your cup. So you’ll enjoy sustainably brewed, smooth, hot or iced tea that’s bursting with flavour.
Further Boost Your Green Credentials
Our commitment to sustainability doesn’t stop there – below are great examples of other ways we can help you to boost your green credentials while enjoying each day more.
· Our Bistro Electric Kettle features a measuring guide to help you use exactly the right amount of water and boils with energy-saving efficiency.
· The Bodum® Nero Tea and Coffee Coats, as well as our Thermo Jugs and double wall drinkware, keep hot drinks hot for longer without needing extra heat. So you can make the most of each pot you brew and decrease your energy usage.
· Our Mocca Vacuum Coffee Maker’s distinctive design is enhanced by a handle made of sustainable cork, one of our signature materials. Plus, it’ll reduce your electricity consumption, thanks to its gas burner.
· Sustainable bamboo is another key material in our collection. The Assam Tea Press’ bamboo handle protects your fingers as well as the environment.
Problems with Single-Use Coffee Capsules and Paper Filters
When you want to pursue a greener way of life, your starting point could be as simple as adopting a sustainable brewing method when you make a cup of joe. Coffee is the world’s favourite drink, with around two billion cups being consumed each day, according to the British Coffee Association. Imagine how much waste would be avoided if every serving was made sustainably, i.e. without single-use items such as coffee capsules or paper filters.
Coffee capsules or pods are often made of a mixture of materials (typically, plastic and aluminium, topped with foil or paper) which means they can’t be processed at standard recycling plants. Billions end up at landfill sites each year, where they may take anything up to half a century to break down. The capsules have therefore earned a reputation for being ‘an environmental menace’, as BBC News explains.
Paper filters are also linked to environmental problems. As they rob coffee of many of its natural oils, which get trapped in the fibres, they can’t easily be used to make recycled paper. What’s more, the sustainable lifestyles blog Dōt advises against composting any filters that have been bleached with the chemical chlorine during the manufacturing process, as they may upset gardens’ delicate ecosystems.
Simple, Sustainable Slow Coffee Brewing Methods
Thankfully, you don’t need single-use capsules or filters to make satisfying coffee.
As Jørgen Bodum, our CEO and son of our founder, emphasises: ‘Good coffee beans, a glass beaker, a steel filter, and freshly boiled water is all that is needed to brew the world’s best cup of coffee, and that is how it has always been.’ Any disposable add-ons are extraneous. Alongside slow coffee, sustainability has always been of central importance to Bodum®. When we launched our first French press, the award-winning Bistro, in the 1970s, it was selected as the most environmentally friendly coffee press by the international media.
All of our coffee makers are designed to enable you to brew delicious, reinvigorating slow coffee in a sustainable way. You might like to start your slow coffee adventure with a wonderfully simple yet stylish French press, pour over or coffee dripper. If you favour a more theatrical brewing experience, our eye-catching, easy-to-use vacuum/siphon coffee makers are bound to capture your attention. Then why not branch out into cold brew coffee for refreshing iced drinks? Whichever Bodum® coffee maker you choose, you can rest assured that you’ll never need disposable capsules or filters again. So you can save money while helping to save the planet. What’s more, by using freshly ground coffee instead of the contents of a capsule, and an integrated, reusable filter instead of a paper version, you’ll preserve more of the beans’ natural oils for a more rounded flavour.
It’s worth pointing out that despite its name, slow coffee doesn’t take long to make at all, so it’s perfect even when you’re busy. You’ll be enjoying a cup in minutes!
Travel Mugs: a Greener Alternative to Takeaway Cups
What about when you want a fantastic cup of coffee on the go? That’s where Bodum®Travel Presses and Travel Mugs come in. They’re a reliable, reusable alternative to the takeaway cups available from many coffee shops and cafés.
Research-led news resource The Conversation has highlighted the fact that 2.5 billion disposable cups, used for coffee and other drinks, are thrown away annually in the UK alone. Sadly, single-use cups litter urban and rural areas around the world. Even when disposed of properly, they raise environmental concerns. Many paper cups are lined with plastic in an attempt to prevent leaks, and this mixture of materials makes them incredibly difficult to process. As a result, only about 0.1% of disposable drinkware is recycled.
As well as being more sustainable than takeaway cups, our travel presses and mugs make coffee, tea and other beverages more enjoyable. They’re designed to keep drinks at the optimum temperature for longer, while their sleeves make them more comfortable to carry. Use a travel press or mug instead of throwaway drinkware and you can say goodbye to other disposable items too, from single-use coffee stirrers to carry trays, further reducing waste.
Try a Loose Leaf Tea Press Instead of Non-Biodegradable Bags
If asked what tea bags are made of, most tea drinkers would probably say paper. However, the vast majority also contain single-use plastic, which is intended to seal the bags and stop them falling apart in hot water.
That’s unsettling news when you want to live more sustainably. As the green lifestyles blog Moral Fibres laments, the presence of disposable plastic means the tea bags aren’t completely biodegradable. Some tea bags are sold in single-use plastic packaging too, compounding the problem. Another issue is that, like paper filters for coffee, tea bags are often chemically bleached.
To enable you to enjoy the purest taste and eliminate non-biodegradable tea bag waste, we’ve designed beautiful tea presses and pots for any kind of loose leaf tea. The permanent, integrated filters let the leaves swirl freely while preventing them from ending up in your cup. So you’ll enjoy sustainably brewed, smooth, hot or iced tea that’s bursting with flavour.
Further Boost Your Green Credentials
Our commitment to sustainability doesn’t stop there – below are great examples of other ways we can help you to boost your green credentials while enjoying each day more.
· Our Bistro Electric Kettle features a measuring guide to help you use exactly the right amount of water and boils with energy-saving efficiency.
· The Bodum® Nero Tea and Coffee Coats, as well as our Thermo Jugs and double wall drinkware, keep hot drinks hot for longer without needing extra heat. So you can make the most of each pot you brew and decrease your energy usage.
· Our Mocca Vacuum Coffee Maker’s distinctive design is enhanced by a handle made of sustainable cork, one of our signature materials. Plus, it’ll reduce your electricity consumption, thanks to its gas burner.
· Sustainable bamboo is another key material in our collection. The Assam Tea Press’ bamboo handle protects your fingers as well as the environment.
Sustainability Is the Way Forward
Earlier this year, Sir David Attenborough reached the age of 93 – and he certainly has reason to celebrate. 53% of US and UK adults surveyed by GlobalWebIndex, a market research company, have used less plastic since Blue Planet II was broadcast.
Also encouraging is the United Nations’ series of sustainable development goals for all countries to work towards by 2030. The goals include ensuring that production and consumption patterns are sustainable, helping to protect people and the planet.
Clearly, sustainable rather than single-use options are the way forward, and we’ll continue doing everything we can to help you pursue a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Siphon brewed coffee produces cleaner, richer, and smoother cup of coffee by maximizing the essential oils from the brew, delivering a balanced and flavorful cup of coffee
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