What happens when a family of confessed coffee snobs who deeply love Nature decide to start a business? You get coffee pods that, when composted correctly, will break down into healthy soil within three months, leaving no trace and no plastic or aluminium behind!
Meet 4WKS
There is something about the smell of a good cup of coffee in the morning that makes the Van Zyls very happy. A full-bodied cuppa, while walking in the garden is the perfect start to our day.
Nespresso® machines have taken the world by storm. It is said that 14 billion Nespresso capsules are sold every year, both online and from 810 brightly lit boutiques in 84 countries, and more than 400 Nespressos are drunk every second. These figures seem great until you think about their impact on the planet. Around 30,000 plastic and aluminium capsules end up in landfills every second. We love the convenience of our Nespresso machine, but we don’t love the impact of their capsules on our planet.
Why then 4WKS
4WKS founders, Dan, Oli and Lulu, shared their perspectives on the coffee capsule industry:
“We launched 4WKS with the ambition to challenge two things: 1) waste and 2) the coffee inside pods. We asked ourselves: Why isn’t the coffee local, artisanal and freshly-roasted? Why is it so often considered second-rate, and is mostly imported, mass-produced, with an expiry date of up to 2 years? And, if we’re going to have pod coffee, why can’t we enjoy our favourite local roasters at the push of a button?”
In addition to celebrating SA’s thriving coffee scene, their main mission at 4WKS is to use something as small as a pod and as habitual as your morning coffee to draw attention to what we use and where/how we throw things away. In this way, we can not only become more conscious of our habits but also start new ones (like composting) to do our bit to shift the planet, 4WKS at a time.
You know how the saying goes: LOCAL IS LEKKER! They are based in Cape Town, and the pods are Nespresso®-compatible. They have collaborated with seven of SA’s best coffee roasters and filled the pods with only the freshest, most delicious grounds.
- Bootlegger | Dark Roast
- häzz | Hero Blend, Dark Roast
- Deluxe | House Blend (and Decaf), Medium Roast
- Truth | Relativity Blend, Medium Roast
- Bluebird | State Of Mind Blend, Medium Roast
- Rosetta | Seasonal Single Origin, Light Roast
- Father | Seasonal Single Origin, Light Roast
4WKS allows us to enjoy delicious, convenient, consistent cups of coffee while feeling good about our impact on the planet!
Composting creates new life for plants, bacteria, fungi, insects, and you. When you start composting at home, you protect the climate by reducing methane emissions from landfills. South Africans generate roughly 122 million tonnes of waste per year. Shocking figures! Composting should become second nature for all of us.
How to compost 4WKS At Home
Tips to ensure your pods (pouch and all) will be food for the worms in no time!
- Coffee pods break down faster in hot composting environments.
- Your compost heap should be at least half a cubic meter.
- Throw your used pods in the middle of the heap (this is where it gets the hottest).
- Water your heap well.
- Turn your compost often to introduce fresh oxygen.
- Don’t panic if the coffee and veggie lid decompose quicker than the shell.
- Let Nature do her thing. In roughly 3 months, your pods will become nutritious compost.
- Add your pods to your iCompost machine, Aerobic, worm farm, bokashi bin, etc. for some extra help.
Not a composter? Click here to find a collection service close to you
Composting is a resourceful way to recycle the food scraps and gardening cuttings you generate at home all year and manage your waste more sustainably. We all have to look for new ways to recycle food waste, which is why I absolutely love what the team at 4WKS is doing! They are taking a product that we all love and enjoy, not only making it sustainable but also implementing strategies to make it easy for you to compost the pods.
Click here to buy your compostable coffee pods
Enjoy your Cuppa Friends
Tash & Family
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