More than one million households are now able to have their coffee pods recycled under a kerbside recycling scheme from Podback.
The move means that Podback now works with more than 20 brands, including Nespresso, Nestcafé, Dolce Gusto, Tassimo, L’Or and Aldi to provide a single scheme for recycling used plastic and aluminium pods.
Once collected, the pods are reprocessed at Podback’s reprocessing partners; used aluminium pods are used in the manufacture of new products like beverage plans and plastic coffee pods – with the grounds going through an anaerobic digestion process to produce a combination of biogas and soil improver.
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The brand is also set to launch three further local authority partnerships before the end of the year, meaning that over 1.3 million households are due to have access to the service.
In total, new polling from the brand shows that over half (57%) of consumers would consider swapping their usual coffee pod brand to one that offered a free recycling service.
“In a little over two years since Podback’s launch, we have made significant progress in our journey to ensure that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled. This month marks another exciting milestone, with over 1 million households across the UK now able to use our kerbside service,” said Podback executive director Rick Hindley.
Cheltenham Borough Council’s Karen Watson added: “We are proud to have been one of the first local authorities to partner with Podback back in April 2021. Our residents have loved how easy it is for them to recycle their coffee pods alongside their everyday household recycling and our elected members have also been impressed by the service.”









