Monday, 6 November 2017

Coffee jar plastic top madness

*** Update March 2024

Finally Available in a Refill pack that weighs 133g holding 125g of coffee - 


However the cost of the refill at £4.8 per 100g


is still more than the jar packaged version at £3.34 / 100 g (with Nectar ) or £4.60 /100g without card. 
On the plus size looks like they have ditched the stupid big plastic top.


The shameful details ..... Even without a Nectar card the jar is cheaper than the refill by a large margin.



========= Previously 

I like a cup of strong flavour instant coffee, I also like to recycle and encourage reduction in packaging. 

In a fit of packaging madness Jacobs Douwe Egberts  lo'r has this most ridiculous plastic top on it's instant coffee. 


551g Total Jar  made up of 
347g of glass          -> 62.3 %
37g   of plastic top ->   6.7 % 
167g of product     ->  30.3 % 

Looking by height 
19cm Total Jar  
16cm Glass     -> 84 %
6.5 cm plastic top -> 15%   which overlaps jar by 3cm and has a further 3cm on top of that.



This type of plastic top is typically non-recyclable ( unlike the glass ) and has no recycling marks identifying the plastic. There is also a plastic film wrapping the glass, which may look nice but does nothing for the recycling process.

Is there a more effective packaging solution ? Yes but the economics don't look great on the latest Morrisons shopping trip.

L'or = £2.34 per 100g
Nescafe gold refill pack = £3.00 per 100g   ( no glass, minimal plastic bag )
66p more expensive for packaging free refill option. Sigh.




Even worse for the environmentally minded Morrisons on-line shopping currently has the refill pack 50p / 100g more expensive than the glass jar version.  6 Nov 2017.

 


Madness.


Further advice on Recycling Etiquette. 


-----
Reply from L'or
Thank you for contacting L’Or.
The lid is made of plastic and is recycled through standard plastic recycling bins.
Kind Regards


C**** M******

Consumer Relations Team

2 comments:

Nytektchr said...

I can't stand brewed coffee! It always smells so good and tastes so bad! My favorite is nescafe in a cup of hot milk with 2 spoons of sugar! It looks like you have different instants, too.

Gannett said...

I had a call back today from Morrison's head office after putting in a complaint via a web form. The caller agreed that having the same product (Nescafe Gold blend) more expensive in a jar compared with the refill packaging was indeed madness. The stated reason was that the jar version was on special offer. I reiterated that products in refill packaging should be much cheaper than full package products. It helps everyone to be green by not moving so many jars and plastic tops around the country when really all we need is the instant coffee in a plastic bag.