Milan residents can now dispose of their aluminium coffee capsules in the yellow bag used for light multi-material waste collection. The change was announced on 9 March by the Municipality of Milan together with waste management firm Amsa, A2A Ambiente, Aluminium Recycling Consortium Cial and Nespresso.

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Marcello Milani, CEO of Amsa, and Elena Grandi, Councillor for the Environment and Green Areas at the Municipality of Milan, presented the initiative, alongside Francesco Guida, head of materials collection and management at Cial, and Monica Pellegrini, operations manager at Nespresso Italiana.

The capsules collected in yellow bags will be sent to the Muggiano plant, managed by A2A Ambiente. The facility was fully revamped at the end of 2024. The upgrade improved its ability to separate the thinnest and lightest aluminium packaging, a fraction historically harder to recover than cans or trays. 

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After collection and sorting, the capsules will be washed and processed through pyrolysis, a low-oxygen combustion method. The process is capable of generating syngas – a critical intermediate for producing synthetic fuels and other chemicals – from the organic coffee residue inside the capsules.

A public communication campaign was launched alongside the announcement to inform citizens about the change.

The move aligns with the EU Packaging Regulation, known as the Ppwr, which classifies coffee capsules as packaging and mandates their inclusion in separate collections. The regulation takes effect on 12 August 2026. However, wider recycling will still require further adaptation of treatment plants.

Cial expects the change to increase aluminium packaging recycling in Milan by 10 per cent. The city currently recycles 1,200 tonnes of aluminium packaging per year. The consortium is also identifying other mature plants nationally that could adopt the same technical process, which enables recovery of the smallest aluminium items, including blisters, fragments and capsules.

Nespresso has operated its own capsule recycling programme since 2011, in partnership with Cial, through a dedicated network of collection points. The system recovers both aluminium and coffee grounds, with specific projects for composting the organic material. In 2011, 3,500 tonnes were collected in Milan and 6,000 tonnes across Lombardy. That dedicated network will continue running in parallel with the new collective system.

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