Header
Recycling capsules is now even easier in Valencia
The Nespresso capsule is sustainable, even at the end of its useful life. This is due to the material we use–endlessly recyclable aluminium–and due to the brand's commitment to facilitate recycling. An aluminium that makes our capsules completely reusable: if our consumers contribute by recycling them, they have a second life as they are transformed into new products.
In order to avoid missing out on the immense sustainability potential of aluminium, we implemented our own capsule recycling system more than 10 years ago. Since then, we have worked tirelessly to make recycling as efficient as possible, while also making it easier for people to recycle.
With this philosophy, the Valencia pilot project was born, through which residents and some businesses in the capital will be able to recycle aluminium and lightweight steel products in all the yellow containers in the city, currently over 2,500. These HORECA establishments and companies may contact the Valencia City Council to check whether they can use the yellow containers. An environmental innovation that even goes beyond our own coffee capsules, both Original and Professional A project that also supports depositing other products such as aluminium foil, small candles, toothpaste tubes, aluminium cans, aluminium wires, or cava lids, among others, in these containers.
To make this project possible, Nespresso has designed and set up a technological solution at the Picassent packaging classification plant. At a technical level, it is an existing technology through eddy currents, which are present in packaging waste management plants. When it is set up normally, it does not capture small volume products. The innovation in the process developed by Nespresso makes up for this deficiency. In this way, a new machine using this technology has been added, adapted to increase the capture of small-sized aluminium and steel waste.
With this effective opening, Valencia has become the first city in Spain to introduce this innovation in its waste management system. The Nespresso team has worked for the past 3 years on this public-private partnership project with Valencian institutions, both the Valencian Generalitat and the Valencia City Council. We are therefore following the example of Nespresso in France, where 30% of French people can deposit their capsules and other aluminium and lightweight steel products in the yellow container, a figure that will reach 50% within 2 years.
This initiative joins the recycling system already available to Nespresso customers. In the city of Valencia, Nespresso has 60 capsule collection points, between Nespresso stores and the network of fixed and mobile recycling centres thanks to the agreement with the Entidad Metropolitana para el Tratamiento de Residuos [Valencian Metropolitan Entity for Waste Treatment]. If the business consumption of Nespresso Professional customers is less than 10,000 capsules per year, they can recycle their capsules at their nearest Nespresso Boutique. If their consumption is higher, they can ask their sales representative which is the ideal recycling solution for their specific needs.
A constant search
for circularity
Nespresso will continue to constantly invest in sustainability initiatives, seeking to expand and communicating constantly with our customers around the world to encourage them to recycle. An unprecedented event in Spain, with Valencia being the first city in Spain to roll out the yellow container.
Valencia has opted for an efficient and sustainable model in waste management. An unprecedented event in Spain, with Valencia being the first city in Spain to roll out the yellow container. Aluminium has the advantage of being 100% and endlessly recyclable and, therefore, perfectly reflects the principles and values of the Circular Economy. Our intention is for the other cities in Spain to also allow this innovation that we are offering. The aluminium in our is too valuable to be wasted.
COAALI
In this respect, Nespresso, as a founding partner, has proposed COAALI, the coalition of organisations created to promote the effective recycling of lightweight steel and aluminium products. COAALI (Coalición por el Reciclaje del Aluminio y Acero Ligero - Coalition for Aluminium and Lightweight Steel Recycling) aims to expand the separation, collection and recycling capacity of these products in pioneering cities in Spain, as has been the case in Valencia. Thus, COAALI represents an endeavour to progress towards an increasingly circular and sustainable economy, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, with three main lines of work: to search for partnerships, encourage effective recycling and encourage public awareness of responsible waste management.
