Coffee brand, Nespresso, celebrates a decade of its UK coffee capsule recycling scheme this month.
The 10-year anniversary marks a milestone in the company’s ambitions towards circularity.
Since the launch of the recycling scheme, with the help of Nespresso customers, the company has:
- Recycled enough aluminium to produce 40 million cans
- Saved enough carbon energy to watch 130 million hours of television
- Saved enough carbon energy to heat 6000 average households for 1 year
- Today, over a third of capsules are recycled in the UK and Republic of Ireland
Nespresso coffee capsules are made of aluminium because it is an infinitely recyclable material and protects the quality and freshness of the coffee.
Once recycled, the aluminium from Nespresso’s capsules goes back into the aluminium value chain, where it is used to make a wide range of everyday objects, from car parts and cans to bicycles.
We are committed to building on these strong foundations and harnessing every opportunity to have a positive impact on the world, continuing to take action in our quest towards circularity
The coffee grounds are recovered to create biogas and as a soil improver.
With support from industry body, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), Nespresso first established a dedicated recycling scheme for its aluminium capsules with Tandom Metallurgical Group in 2010, in an effort to ensure the whole capsule could be given a second life.
Tandom operates a specialist recycling facility in Cheshire, where Nespresso capsules are processed. Recycling aluminium saves energy by approximately 95 per cent compared to producing it from ore.
Circularity
Guillaume Chesneau, Managing Director of Nespresso UK & ROI, said: “We are proud to have been leading the industry in aluminium capsule recycling in the UK for the last ten years.
“We are committed to building on these strong foundations and harnessing every opportunity to have a positive impact on the world, continuing to take action in our quest towards circularity.”
Nespresso has also developed several partnerships to create objects from its recycled capsules. These partnerships illustrate the potential of recyclable aluminium and encourage Nespresso customers to recycle their capsules.
It makes us incredibly proud to now be able to say we played a part in helping to create a recycling operation that has constantly improved, delivering a vital service to their customers and the planet – Alupro
Recent products include a Caran D’Ache pen and RE:CYCLE, a stylish bicycle made by Swedish lifestyle bike brand Vélosophy.
Rick Hindley, Executive Director at Alupro, added: “It’s incredibly impressive to see the growth of the Nespresso recycling scheme since first working with them to develop and deliver the launch a full 10 years ago.
“It makes us incredibly proud to now be able to say we played a part in helping to create a recycling operation that has constantly improved, delivering a vital service to their customers and the planet. We’re excited to see how the recycling scheme further develops and how different it will look in another ten years.”
Nespresso has the capacity to collect and process 100% of all used capsules across the UK, with consumers able to recycle their capsules by dropping their used capsules off at any Nespresso boutique or over 7000 Collect+ locations, or by booking a home collection.
