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How to Recycle Coffee Capsules

How to Recycle Coffee Capsules

The down side of being one of the millions of people caught up in the coffee pod craze, is that you suddenly have a bunch more junk in the bin and are contributing to the latest convenience marketing at the expense of the environment.

And Nespresso are the absolute best contemporary example of a business that created a crap load of waste and is now making a big old show of being sustainable by sponsoring sustainability conferences and taking back their own waste. (Don't get me started.)

There are a few options for recycling, but you cannot put your pod into the recycle bin.

Nespresso Coffee Capsules can be returned to any Nespresso Boutique for responsible disposal and recycling. Nespresso have a cannister system as well, where you can purchase a canister from them to store your used pods ready for return. 

TerraCycle offers coffee capsule recycling of Nespresso Coffee Capsules. Request for a pre-paid postal label and mail your used coffee capsules to TerraCycle for recycling.



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Science Notes
Coffee capsules are made up of plastic, aluminium, coffee and paper. While all these items can be recycled or composted separately, as a blended item, you have a completely different scenario.

Nespresso have a recycling facility in NSW where the separate the components and recycle the aluminium, send the coffee grounds and presumably the paper to composting. 

Related Tip
If you love your pod coffee, opt for refillable coffee capsules. Mr Coffee Pod offer coffee capsules that are reusable and refillable. The capsules can be used up to 30 times and you can fill the capsules with the type of coffee that you prefer. 

If you don't take your pods back, think of coffee pods like shopping bags. The question is whether the convenience of single-serve coffee systems is worth the overall environmental impact.