Imagine being able to recycle single-use coffee pods in your curbside recycling bin — that's the ultimate goal for coffee giant Nespresso, and it has become a reality in the New York City area.
At an event hosted by the nonprofit Food Tank at the Sundance Film Festival, Nespresso USA VP for marketing and sustainability Jessica Padula gave a deep dive on the company's sustainability plans, including making recycling "free and easy" and producing a better cup of coffee that also makes more money for coffee farmers.
While many companies are retreating from their sustainability goals — or not talking about them publicly — Nespresso, a certified B Corporation, isn't backing down from its commitment to reduce the company's emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, which it believes will inspire customers to buy more coffee.
♻️ Recycling those pods: from single-use to circular
Most Nespresso pods are made of partially recycled aluminum, which seals in the flavor and freshness of the coffee, Padula explained, and is also infinitely recyclable. When recycled properly, the pods get separated into the aluminum, which is crushed up and sold, and the coffee grounds, which are turned into compost.
Customers can recycle their pods in three ways:
• The company provides a fully funded UPS bag that you can order with your coffee — Nespresso pays for the bag to be sent to you and back
• You can bring your pods back to one of its 47 boutiques around the country
• In some locations, the pods are being recycled in the local recycling streams
The company partnered with the NYC Department of Sanitation to enable its small aluminum capsules to be collected in New York's five boroughs and Jersey City — letting customers drop their capsules in the blue bin thanks to a new sorting technology.
New Yorkers have recycled approximately 350 tons of Nespresso capsules since curbside recycling started, the company says, and it is "committed to adding more cities across the U.S."
"We're constantly fighting the battle that people don't even realize we're recyclable," Padula said. "It should be a no-brainer. … We are making it free and easy," adding that she hopes these behaviors will become as natural as brushing your teeth.
Nespresso also recently unveiled compostable coffee capsules made of paper.
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Giving me money back 💰 ☕ Supporting farmers to make a better cup — and more money
While pod recycling is important, 48% of Nespresso's carbon footprint comes from the sourcing of its coffee, according to a study by Quantis tracking the lifecycle of Nespresso's coffee.
Nespresso's AAA Sustainable Quality program, run in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance, supports over 150,000 farmers in countries where the company sources coffee, teaching farmers one-on-one about the benefits of regenerative agriculture.
Regenerative agriculture is better for the soil, ultimately creating better quality coffee that can sell for more money, but it can take 3-5 years for farms to transition from conventional farming to regenerative methods.
"We meet the farmers, shake their hands, understand their hesitations, reservations, and fears … and work with them to evolve their farms," Padula said.
The key message for farmers, she said, is that they'll make more money.
"We're going to guarantee them that if they choose to [switch to regenerative farming], we will pay them top dollar for better-quality coffee," she said. "The soil creates a great cup of coffee."
Padula hopes that message also translates to the customer, too: "The more [coffee] we can sell, the more farmers you can help. It's our responsibility to help the farmers by selling more coffee and making sure that people know that our coffee is sustainably made."
🐝 Their sweet honeybee opportunity
Another way the company is helping farmers make more money — and building a new revenue stream — starts with bees.
"We trained thousands of farmers in Colombia how to be beekeepers," Padula explained.
Less than a year after introducing the honeybees with its partner Ubees, she said the bees on the farms have increased the yields of the existing crops and are producing a higher quality crop.
And they're giving farmers a new source of income with new products that Nespresso is selling under its brand Nespresso Bloom, including honey, a honey syrup with espresso, and a ready-to-drink canned coffee that includes honey and Colombian coffee.
"It's now a tangible expression of a product that we can show as an example of a regenerative product," she said.
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