Nespresso partners with Australia Post in aluminium coffee capsule recycling programme

Nespresso is on a mission to put an end to the ongoing criticism regarding its coffee pods adding to the environmental waste. In a recent drive to bring in various business entities well within its ambit of aluminium coffee capsule recycling, the company has roped in Australia Post's national network to launch a specially designed post satchel for consumers to return the aluminium capsules for recycling.

Nespresso, a coffee business within Swiss food brand Nestlé, with around 83 per cent stake in the Australian fresh ground coffee capsule market, has been recycling aluminium capsules independently since 2010 at its plant in Nowra, NSW. But the firm could never make the country’s environmental groups happy with its efforts as they continued with their criticism. To quell all these, Nespresso took to expanding its network of collecting coffee capsules across the country. Partnering with Australia Post essentially forms a part of this strategic move.

Until now, consumers wanting to recycle aluminium coffee capsules had to return them to one of 18 Nespresso shop fronts nationally or a network of 300 florists. Australia Post's more than 4000 post offices and 15,000 street post boxes are expected to extend the reach of the recycling program, particularly to those in regional areas.



Nespresso Australia and Oceania managing director Loïc Réthoré told The Australian Financial Review the company had been developing the initiative for more than two years.

"As a company we take the view we have a role to play in this and we want to be more responsible, so we therefore take all the steps that remove the barriers to recycling," Mr Réthoré said.

"The outcome of our recycling activities has been limited because of the lack of accessibility of the recycling points, which is precisely what we are moving on and what we are fixing now with this Australia Post initiative," he said. "So therefore we are very confident this plan will help us to increase the number of people recycling."