Nespresso is the first single-serve coffee company which had to open up a facility to recycle their one-time coffee pods.
They’re doing this because of a coffee pod problem- they’re polluting our environment and contain bad stuff!
Single-serve coffee machines are very popular and around 1/3 of American coffee consumers have one whereas more than 50 percent of Americans said they used single-cup coffee pods in 2017.
Today, there are sufficient coffee pods buried to circle planet Earth 12 times!
Coffee pods need a special way of recycling and some of them may contain Plastic #7 that’s hard to dissolve and may contain toxins too.
What Did Nespresso Do to Fight Off this Concerning Issue?
As the capsules of Nespresso are made of aluminum, they need a specific way of recycling and therefore, they’ve partnered up with Ag Choice.
The grounds are divided from the aluminum containers and then the empty capsules are baled and melted and the grounds are baked.
Jay Fischer, the founder and president of Ag Choice, said that you needn’t open them up or rinse them. You just use them, put them in the approved Nespresso bag, and send it back to the company.
This means that the company depends on its customers to return back the pods for proper recycling.
The Backlash against Single-Use Coffee Pods
Nespresso and Keurig are two leading single-serve coffee companies in the world.
Back in 2014, a video titled ‘Kill the K Cup’ appeared and pointed fingers to Keurig because of their pods containing Plastic #7.
John Sylvan, co-inventor of Keurig, even said once he regrets creating the K-cup after they realized what it had done to the environment.
Nespresso carries out the recycling program in 37 countries, including New Zealand, Canada, and Brazil.
Both Nespresso and Keurig want to create a more sustainable and comprehensive sustainable pod recycling program by the year of 2020.
They want to encourage a conscious consumption of their coffees and encourage all of their customers to send back the pods for proper recycling, explains Katarina Wos, PR and Corporate Communications for US Nespresso.
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