Background Info
It is a little known fact that the plastic components found in a Tassimo pod can in fact be recycled at certain locations. However, in order to do this efficiently, everything else except the plastic must be stripped from the pods. This is a difficult and time-consuming task. Most consumers would be appalled by trying to incorporate this cleaning process into their daily routine, which is why we began experimenting.
Our Mission
We set out on a mission to find a simpler, easier way to clean a Tassimo single-serve pod. Peeling and scraping a pod with a knife is not only timely, but serves a big risk to the average consumer. By talking to several science-minded people, we were able to gather some liquids that could possibly help speed up this cleaning process. We assembled an array of liquids and came up with our question to test; If you were to place a used Tassimo pod in a cup of each liquid, how well would it dissolve all the non-plastics?
Testing
For this experiment, we utilized four separate liquids, in hopes that one of them would significantly speed up the dissolving process and make the overall cleaning task simpler. The liquids we tested were:
- Pure White Vinegar (_% Acetic Acid)
- Soap and Tap Water Mixture (Approximately _ Soap)
- Acetone
- Acetic Acid
The Tassimo Disks soaking away!
In the end
After 3 days of soaking we removed the Tassimo pods and tried to peel the aluminium off the top, none of the liquids proved to be 100% effective but the Acetone was pretty close, there was a few spots of aluminium that we had to scrape but generally it peeled off clean. Next Acetic Acid proved well showing close to the same effect as the Acetone. Vinegar and soapy water did little work to make the process easier and we had to scrape quite a lot.
Acetone is a flammable, colourless and unpredictable organic compound. It is both a powerful solvent and a part of the human metabolism. It is also found in paint stripper and nail polish.
Practical uses of this knowledge
Although it seems that it would be dangerous to market Acetone to the public for something as simple as peeling the lids off Tassimo pods and inconvenient that it has to sit for several days we have come up with a half-way point idea. Consumers could send their used Tassimo pods to a facility that separates the lid (aluminium) from the bottom (plastic) and recycling them separately. There is also a possibility with further research and tests that a home method can be developed.