Nespresso awarded French environmental accolade

Nespresso has been awarded best environmental initiative at a social responsibility awards ceremony in France, in recognition of its work to support innovation in recycling technology and develop partnerships that improve the recycling of aluminium coffee capsules and other small-sized metal packaging.

Nespresso France was given the accolade as part of the second annual Trophées Défis RSE awards. It follows the establishment of a number of green initiatives, as the coffee producer seeks to improve the rate of recycling for aluminium packaging – currently, less than one third of household aluminium waste is reused, despite the material being 100% recyclable.

In 2009, Nespresso co-founded the Club for Aluminium and Steel Light Packaging (CELAA) to help increase recycling capabilities in France for small-scale aluminium and steel packaging such as Nespresso capsules, bottle caps and foil.

The company also launched Project Metal last year, which offers up to €300 per tonne of aluminium packaging to incentivise sorting centres to invest in tools that can sort small aluminium packaging. The initiative has helped more than 3m people in 500 communities across France to dispose of aluminium packaging using recycling bins, and builds on its agreement with Eco-Emballages and the Association of French Mayors to include the collection of used capsules in their collection system.

All of these initiatives are part of Nespresso’s new sustainability strategy labelled The Positive Cup, where the Nestlé-owned brand is seeking to expanding its capacity to recycle used aluminium capsules. Nespresso has installed more than 14,000 capsule collection points across 31 countries, and a home collection service is additionally available in 15 global markets.