Australian recyclers to start kerbside aluminium coffee capsules recycling facility

Australian recyclers, iQ Renew and CurbCycle, will reportedly partner with Mosman and Willoughby councils to facilitate a trial for aluminium coffee capsules recycling, which will help inform the development of a national coffee capsule recycling scheme, led by Planet Ark.

Specially designed orange bags will be sent to 5000 participating households in the trial areas to collect used aluminium capsules. The participants can then place the bags in their kerbside recycling bins for collection. This initiative will provide vital insights to roll out the scheme across the country.

“It is great to see this trial occurring and we want to thank all the collaboration partners for making this possible,” Planet Ark CEO Paul Klymenko said.

He added, “By providing their communities with the additional option of kerbside collection, it will allow more people to recycle their coffee capsules and contribute to creating a circular economy.”

Aluminium coffee capsules will be separated from other recycling at iQ Renew’s Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and transferred to the existing Nespresso recycling system in NSW for separating coffee grounds and aluminium.

Then the aluminium will go to aluminium producers and coffee grounds will local commercial compost.

“While aluminium coffee capsules can already be collected for recycling through store drop-off, post and bulk recycling boxes, their small size has been an obstacle to recycling in traditional kerbside recycling systems,” Gallagher said.  

He added, “We have looked at kerbside collection systems overseas to see what works, and are optimistic that the Curby system of placing them in a bag will allow them to be separated easily in our facility.”