All soft coffee pods and tea bags can now be put in organic waste containers to be processed, as industry partners and the government enter into a ‘green deal’, sector organisation Koffie & Thee Nederland said this week.

According to government research, some 93% of all tea bags are now biodegradable and almost 97% of coffee pods. The coffee pods and tea bags will result in 88% more compost on an annual basis, the organisation said.

Earlier advice to simply chuck pods and bags in the bin because it wasn’t clear to consumers if they were biodegradable or not is now obsolete, Lisanne Evers, director of Koffie & Thee Nederland, said.

‘We have worked hard with our partners to make our sector sustainable, as one of first in Europe and we are expecting the whole sector to switch to biodegradable products very soon,’ she said.

The move means that soft coffee pods and tea bags are now included in the official list of rubbish that can be put with other organic waste. Coffee filters are already fully biodegradable.

Coffee capsules are not part of the deal but work is being done to collect and recycle the plastic aluminium cups.