The past year and a half has meant the forging of new rituals. We’ve swapped ironing shirts on a Sunday night to perfecting the self-taught fringe trim. Running for the train has been replaced with the obligatory two times around the block before logging in. And coffee? It’s gone in-house. After the announcement of the second lockdown in England on 5 November last year, AO.com reported a 412% increase in sales of coffee machines. Out with the dubious brown froth from the office machine, in with single-serve and self-styled!
But along with an increased interest in making our home offices as comfortable as possible, the pandemic also heightened already growing concerns around humans’ environmental footprint. As tempting as a mess-free machine that makes an espresso in under a minute sounds, “single-use” capsules are generally not perceived as a good look. So how are portioned coffee companies responding?
With Podback, for starters. A UK industry-wide collaboration co-founded by Nespresso to recover and recycle all used coffee pods was launched earlier this year and provides consumers with several new ways to responsibly deal with their pods. Participating councils offer a kerbside collection and pods can be returned to drop-off points. A retailer “handover at home” system is also being worked on, with the aim that people will be able to hand over their used pods when their groceries are being delivered. This is in addition to services already offered by Nespresso for more than 10 years but makes it even easier for consumers to recycle.
Sounds great, but for most materials, recycling only goes so far. A sizable portion of the glass we diligently put in our bins reaches the end of its life in the form of aggregate for roads and building materials, for example, and the quality of plastic decreases each time it’s recycled. Not so for aluminium. According to England’s national recycling campaign, RecycleNow, aluminium “can be recycled time and time again, without loss of properties”. Recycled aluminium also has a significantly smaller environmental footprint than the virgin material. Alupro, a not-for-profit that represents the UK’s aluminium packaging industry, attests that 95% less energy is used by recycling aluminium than producing it from raw materials. And 97% of greenhouse gas emissions are saved.
The aluminium in the Nespresso capsules keeps the coffee fresh, protecting it from light, air and humidity, while the drive to recycle the metal is one element of the company’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2022.
“When looking into aluminium production, it made sense to try to use as much recycled material as possible,” says Jimmy Östholm, founder of the Swedish bicycle brand Vélosophy. The company makes stylish commuter bikes with aluminium frames, including as much recycled aluminium as regulations will allow (30-35% currently). In 2019, it teamed up with Nespresso to release the limited edition Re:cycle bike, a classic commuter bike complete with basket and bell, in a fetching purple. The recycled aluminium in the frame includes spent Nespresso pods.
Typically, bike frames are made of either carbon, steel or aluminium. For Vélosophy, carbon could be ruled out as it’s more suited to a performance bike. And in deciding between aluminium and steel, it was an easy choice for the company. “[Aluminium is] not only more durable than a steel frame, it also ages with grace,” says Östholm, explaining that the metal does not corrode.
Knowing exactly where the recycled aluminium comes from in the Re:cycle bike also means there is a strong story behind it. Östholm had read about Nespresso creating products with the aluminium from used pods – a ballpoint pen with the Swiss company Caran d’Ache, and the Victorinox Swiss army knife, for instance. These creations are part of Nespresso’s Second Life campaign. Seeing that the coffee company was looking to find innovative new ways to collaborate with brands to demonstrate recycling in action, Östholm reached out. “It was a simple email, popping the question to their sustainability manager,” he says. “‘What about making a bike?’” it said.
Eighteen months after they’d heard back, the Re:cycle was born. About 1,500 were made available in two waves of production, all selling out in a matter of weeks. And at “some point in 2022”, says Östholm, there will be another drop.
The cost of recycled aluminium is, ironically, more expensive than the virgin material, but the environmental benefits for Östholm outweigh any added expense. And being determined to make Vélosophy more than just about “selling good-looking bikes”, the company has a social mission too. For every bike it sells, Vélosophy donates one to a schoolgirl in a developing country.
At a time when our impact on the Earth is top of our minds, finding ways to better understand the results of individual actions is crucial. If people are more compelled to recycle their coffee pods because they can see that they’re being made into beautiful and useful products, says Östholm, that’s never going to be a bad thing.
Discover what’s next for Nespresso’s journey to carbon-neutral coffee here
