Coffee Pods & Capsules Alternative ways to recycle Landfill (Trash) Cart Coffee Capsules Never Recyclable Curbside While plastic coffee capsules are often touted as “recyclable,” the cups are actually too small to be captured and recycled in recycling facilities where objects are separated based on size and density. Alternative Ways to Recycle Nespresso Capsule Recycling Find a collection point to drop off your Nespresso capsules for recycling. Or you can order a Recycling Bag for Nespresso capsules free with any purchase from Nespresso’s website. Each bag can hold up to 200 OriginalLine or 100 VertuoLine capsules. Once filled, you can return this bag at no charge via UPS. iperEspresso Capsule Recycling Program The illy coffee company created the iperEspresso Capsule Recycling Program, which upcycles iperEspresso coffee capsules and turns them into beneficial products like park benches. Drop off used capsules at a Sur La Table location or learn more about mail-in options here. Ways to Reduce Purchase a Reusable Coffee Capsule Instead of buying individual brand-name coffee capsules, try a reusable capsule like the EZ-Cup, which works with your coffee machine and uses biodegradable filters. You could also consider the 100 percent compostable cup, the PurPod100. Try Another Brewing Method Many other methods of making coffee use fewer materials than capsules. French presses or espresso makers don’t require any single-use materials. Percolators or pour-over coffee kits only require a coffee filter. Did You Know? The Price of the Coffee Capsule Craze Coffee capsule packaging creates about 966 million pounds of waste annually, or the equivalent of throwing out 150,000 Hummer H2s every year. Designer Eason Chow invented the Droops Coffee Maker, a cup alternative that is entirely edible, in order to solve this growing problem. Find out more. A Recycling Program That Turns K-Cups into Cement It’s small, but it exists: in Canada, there’s a program that recycles K-Cups into cement. In 2014, it recycled about 1.4 million K-Cups for this purpose by drying the pods, shredding them, and heating them to 2000°C to form ash, which is subsequently turned into cement. The program has been so successful that it may expand into more Canada locations.
