A pilot program on Sydney’s north shore will see 5000 households able to recycle aluminium coffee pods through their kerbside bins.
The ‘Curby’ trial is being run by Australian recyclers iQ Renew and Curbcycle, in partnership with local councils for Willoughby and Mosman.
Nespresso general manager Jean-Marc Dragoli said the company has had experience developing similar recycling schemes overseas.
“We need to make it as easy as possible for people to get their used capsules recycled, and we know kerbside recycling is the easiest path. We hope that this increases the amount of capsules we can collect and process for a better future,” said Dragoli.
The capsules will be separated from other recycling at iQ Renew’s Material Recovery Facility and then transferred to the existing Nespresso NSW recycling system for separating into coffee grounds and aluminium.
Nespresso sends its aluminium back to industry, reducing 95 per cent of the energy required to source aluminium from scratch. All coffee grounds go to local commercial composts.
iQ Renew CEO Danny Gallgher said the trial allows them to see the household demand for the scheme and to test the collection method.
“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,” said Gallagher.
A bright orange bag to collect used aluminium capsules will be given to the household participants, which they can place in their recycling bins for collection.
