Wish You Were Here: Mars Drinks forms partnership to be cleaner and greener

It's rare that a company could combine two things I truly love -- coffee and promoting greener living -- but it seems Mars drinks has done it.

Mars Drinks, makers of single-serve beverages served in offices and law firms around the country, is partnering with TerraCycle to help decrease the amount of waste from its packaging. TerraCycle will take used FLAVIA fresh packs and turn them into high-quality office products such as pencil cases and notebooks — and compost coffee grounds once they’ve been brewed.

The TerraCycle partnership is the latest addition to “Thirsty for Change,” Mars Drinks’ sustainability platform that includes:
* Achieving Rainforest Alliance Certification for their 3 most popular beverages -- House Blend, Kona Blend and Breakfast Blend. This certification ensures that the coffee used in FLAVIA’s fresh packs comes from farms where forests are protected; rivers, soils and wildlife are conserved; and workers are treated with respect, paid decent wages, properly equipped and given access to education and medical care.
* Changes to the brewer, fresh packs, cups merchandiser and rail to be more green, including using recycled materials and consuming less energy.
* An innovative waste-to-energy program that turns used fresh packs into energy. If all used fresh packs were included in this program, enough energy would be generated to light up to 20,000 homes for a year.

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