The joy of
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offee-loving Australians have
embraced the convenience of
capsule machines. But such
convenience comes at an environmental
cost if capsules gets dropped into the
bin after use and end up in landfill.
Coffee capsules are, and always have
been, technically recyclable. The used
coffee grounds are compostable and the
material that makes up the casing, be it
plastic or aluminium, can most certainly
be re-used. The problem is that capsules
can’t go into your kerbside recycling
collection because local waste plants
aren’t set up to process them.
As the number of these machines
grows, the question of waste becomes
pressing, especially for market leader
Nespresso. The company already accepts
used capsules for recycling at itsstores
and operates a partnership with
TerraCycle, in which capsules can
be dropped off at selected florists.
TerraCycle also offers postage-paid
boxes, through Officeworks, forrecycling
all brands of capsules.
In September, Nespresso launched
its newest recycling collaboration, with
Australia Post. For $1.90, consumers
can buy a special postal satchel (at
Nespresso stores or online) that holds
up to 130 used capsules, fill it andsend it back to the company. The return
postage is paid by Nespresso, no matter
where the sender lives in Australia.
“It’s the next step in removing the
barriers to recycling,” says Loïc Réthoré,
general manager of Nespresso Australia
and Oceania. “There are effectively
20,000 capsule collection points across
the country: your nearest postbox and
every post office in Australia.”
The returned capsules go on to a
specialist recycling plant in Nowra, NSW,
where the separated grounds become
compost and the capsules are sent back
to the aluminium industry for re-use.
Pre-launch testing found that 90 per
cent of Nespresso customers expressed
an interest in using this program, says
Réthoré, who believes it will boost
significantly the number of capsules
recycled. A working group has been set
up to advise the company on this new
recycling approach.
“It’s great to see Nespresso finding
ways to make recycling capsules more
accessible,” says Paul Klymenko, CEO of
Planet Ark and founding member of the
recycling working group. “I commend
the company for its approach in taking
responsibility for the entire life cycle
of its products.” #
Go to http://www.nespresso.com/recycling.The greenhouse
GROUNDS ZERO
A new recyclingprogram for used coffeecapsules
is a welcome development, writesSarah Pickette.Photograph from Gety Images.