Costa Coffee partners with pod recycling service for UK trial scheme
Image: Costa x Podback
UK coffee chain, Costa Coffee, has announced a new trial collaboration with Podback, a UK-wide coffee pod recycling service, to offer coffee pod recycling in 142 Costa Coffee stores across the UK. During the trial, customers can pick up free Podback recycling bags in-store and return them once full for Podback to collect and recycle.
Customers will be able to pick up free Podback bags from baristas in all 133 Costa Coffee stores located within Tesco stores across the UK, and nine Costa Coffee stores in the Swindon area, then take back their full bags for recycling. In addition, Podback-branded recycling points have been installed in the participating Tesco stores to make it even easier to spot opportunities to recycle pods. The scheme accepts both plastic and aluminium pods from any Podback member brands, including Costa Coffee pods for Nespresso, Tassimo and NESCAFE Dolce Gusto machines. The list of locations that the drop-off points will be installed are also now on Podback’s website here.
The rollout of the new recycling points began in August, building on Costa Coffee’s existing in-house pod recycling scheme. Together, Podback and Costa Coffee will aim to collect more pods for recycling through specialist facilities, where the different materials they are made from can be separated to enable them to be recycled.
This trial marks the latest step in Costa Coffee’s efforts to provide recycling options for packaging items that can’t easily be recycled at home or kerbside. Back in 2018, the brand worked with Valpak, an environmental solutions and resource management company, to establish the UK’s National Cup Recycling Scheme, which helped fund cup recycling infrastructure across the country. The scheme, now supported by many of the UK’s other major coffee brands, highlights the importance of collaboration in advancing new recycling solutions. Now, Costa Coffee will become the first UK coffee chain to collaborate with Podback to introduce customer-facing pod recycling points.
Rick Hindley, executive director of Podback, said: “This trial gives Podback customers the opportunity to drop off their used pods at local Costa Coffee stores, a response to customer feedback telling us people want a choice of ways to recycle that fit with their daily lives. We are excited to be working with Costa Coffee and Tesco to make this a reality in more than 140 locations across the country. We are sure Podback customers will welcome the new service, and hope that it is the first step to rolling out more drop-off locations throughout the UK.”
Liz Higgins, head of sustainability at Costa Coffee, said: “We are always looking for new ways to make it easier for our customers to recycle our packaging. Through this trial with Podback, in-store drop-off points will offer coffee pod users the chance to conveniently recycle their pods with us – whether they are Costa branded or not. The new front-of-house recycling units will be supported by increased messaging in store, which we hope will act as a reminder to customers when visiting our participating stores. The trial will allow us to gather valuable customer feedback and insights, which we will use to enhance our future recycling solutions for pods, cups, and other packaging materials.”
Catherine David, director behaviour change and business programmes WRAP, said: “The trial with Costa Coffee is a fantastic way to normalise and simplify recycling coffee pods. Due to their multiple component materials, these pods must be sent to a specialist recycling facility. Now, customers can easily drop them off in any participating Costa Coffee store. Making recycling simple is key to success, and capturing trickier items like pods at scale is an important step forward.”
Through the Podback scheme, used aluminium and plastic pods are recycled in the UK. Aluminium pods are recycled in Cheshire and used in the manufacture of beverage cans and car components. Plastic pods are recycled in Yorkshire and used in the manufacture of a range of items, including packaging crates and building products. The used coffee grounds are processed by anaerobic digestion facilities, producing renewable energy (biogas) and soil improver.
The locations of all drop off points will also be added to the Recycle Now Recycling Locator (managed by WRAP) – the UK’s only postcode-based search tool for people to find out what they can recycle at home, or at nearby locations.
