A bicycle made out of recycled Nespresso coffee capsules has been sold at a charity auction. The bike, built by Czech bike producer, Festka, went for 160,000 CZK (just over £5,000) with the proceeds going to the Tereza Maxová Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children.
The relationship between coffee and cycling is now so well-established that a law appears to have been introduced dictating that no YouTube video romanticising the sport can be uploaded to the site without at least one brief shot of a steaming cup of the stuff.
This version of the Festka Doppler approaches that relationship from a different angle, however. To keep coffee well preserved, Nespresso packages its product in aluminium capsules and these have been recycled to create the bike itself.
It's official: caffeine makes you ride harder and faster
The aluminium tubes of the frame contain approximately 995 used capsules.
"Aluminium has a long history of use in the bicycle manufacturing industry,” said Festka co-founder Michael Moureček. “Creating a bicycle from recycled aluminium capsules and giving this material a second chance was a big challenge for us.
"We went one step further and combined aluminium with carbon composite based on the blueprint of the successful Doppler model. This helped create a truly state-of-the -art bike: both in terms of its looks and in terms of the usage of materials."
The melted aluminium capsules also reveal themselves in a display of 21 Nespresso colours on the rear wheel, with Moureček adding: "We try to convey the client’s story in each bike we create in our shop.”
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7 comments
Wasn't he the same guy who put lead in petrol and CFCs in fridges
Even the inventor of coffee pods regrets their existence. They are complete idiocy. History will use it a symbol for all that was wrong in our era. Name us podlings.
http://www.treehugger.com/green-home/k-cup-inventor-expresses-regret.html
How exactly did Festka recycle the aluminium form the pods when the actual recycling industry finds it quite difficult to deal with those heinous things?
I know Tassimo and the like are difficult to recycle as they combine various materials, but Nespresso pods are just aluminium aren't they?
Thye are and there are collection points where used pods can be left for recycling.
Exactly how many pods get recycled is another matter.
Senseo may be the "greenest" pod system, as they are simply coffee bags that can go straight on the compost heap.
I odn't know why Senseo machines aren't sold over here when I see them everywhere in Europe.
Yeah, that's all well and good. But think about the carbon footprint to make all those little coffee pods in the fist place.
One for George Clooney, surely, seeing as he is so bloody keen on the chuffing things.