4WKS, an innovative, Cape Town-based coffee pod company has launched a product that is preventing your morning coffee from killing the planet.
In its efforts towards celebrating the best of South Africa’s vibrant coffee scene, 4WKS has introduced a 100% compostable ziplock pouch designed not only as refill packaging but also as a catalyst for change.
The sustainability-focused company has added this innovative layer to its zero-waste approach to packaging while bringing awareness to the often unseen yet critical issue of waste.
Small acts working to reduce big problems
It’s estimated that South Africa generates more than 122 million tons of waste a year, equating to roughly R25.2 billion worth of dumped waste. Of this, 90% is disposed of in over-capacitated landfill sites and only 10% is recycled. Almost 40% of all waste that ends up in South African landfills is organic and biodegradable.
In the Western Cape alone, roughly three million tonnes of organic waste are produced annually and most of it lands in landfill.
It’s up to individuals, legislation and even start-ups to work together to fix it. And that’s what motivates 4WKS.
Brains behind the business
The company was launched in 2019 by brothers Daniel and Oliver Pretorius and their cousin Lulu Larché as a local start-up with big ambitions: to challenge the wastefulness and unsustainability of single-use plastic/aluminium coffee pods — over 56 billion of which end up in landfill every year, where they’ll remain for up to 500 years.
The trio set out to show how pods can be done in a better way — not only through curating the best local coffees (packed fresh and best enjoyed within four weeks) but also to match convenience with mindfulness, and to challenge society’s largely unconscious “grab-go-throw” culture.
Support businesses that support the planet
With its 100% compostable pod, including an innovative paper lid made from vegetable fibres, the company has partnered with local coffee heavyweights — Deluxe Coffeeworks, Father Coffee, Naked Coffee, Rosetta Roastery, Truth Coffee Roasting and Terbodore Coffee Roasters — to make their freshly-roasted coffees available to specialty coffee lovers, in seconds.
When opened and the pods decanted, the innovative new pouch becomes a storage carrier for used coffee pods. Once full, the pouch can then be zipped up and returned to one of the eight compost collection points that 4WKS has set up in the Western Cape; or alternatively, composted — as a complete unit (pouch, pods, coffee) — at home.
Eight compost collection points:
- Deluxe Coffeeworks: 176A Buitenkant Street, Cape Town
- Truth Coffee: 36 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town
- Rosetta Roastery: 101 Bree Street, Cape Town
- Terbodore Cafe: 29A Huguenot St, Franschhoek
- Naked Coffee: 2 Wisbeach Rd, Sea Point, Cape Town
- Pauline’s: 277 Main Rd, Sea Point, Cape Town
- Terbodore Cafe: 29A Huguenot St, Franschhoek
- 4WKS Pod Shop: 12 Ravenscraig Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
For tips on composting at home, click HERE.
In partnership with Ywaste, a composting facility in the Western Cape, 4WKS ensures that all pods collected (pouch included) will return to earth in as little as three months.
Turning trash into treasure
4WKS’ new compostable packaging is a small but significant step in the direction of shifting habits and bringing about more consciousness when it comes to waste, while at the same time encouraging the habit of composting. This is because, at the very start, in order to be able to effectively compost organic waste, it needs to be source-separated.
Says Emile Fourie, owner of Ywaste: “What makes the 4WKS’ compostable pouch so amazing is that it starts to embed this kind of thinking at the source and, in reducing contamination, is the first step in ensuring that waste is being treated in a way in which it’s not wasted, but turned into something valuable.”
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Pictures: Supplied