Nespresso: aluminium recycling
On the first anniversary of the launch of its sustainability
strategy The Positive Cup, Nespresso has reported significant
progress towards achieving its 2020 sustainability goals. As
part of this strategy, which also spans sustainable coffee
sourcing and carbon-efficient operations, the brand aims to:
• Source 100% of virgin aluminium in compliance with the
Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) Performance
Standard by 2020;
• Have the capacity to collect 100% of used aluminium
capsules, wherever the company does business; and
• Recycle the capsules collected in key European markets
(Austria, Benelux, France, Italy and Switzerland) into
new capsules.
Aluminium is highly recyclable, and recycling it uses 95% less
energy than primary production, and produces only 5% of the
GHG emissions. Nonetheless, in some markets, household
aluminium packaging items below 70 mm in diameter aren’t
recycled because sorting centres lack the equipment able to
process small packages.
We are working with numerous industries and
governmental stakeholders to develop country-specific
systems for the collection and recycling of used Nespresso
capsules and other small aluminium packages. To make
recycling as easy as possible for consumers, we have set up
thousands of collection points across 34 countries. Thanks to
this, our global collection capacity has reached about 85% in
2015, supported by doorstep collections of used capsules in
15 countries (meaning that 85% of our capsules are sold in the
vicinity of a collection point).