Dear capsule-coffee drinkers,
Good news for you: Nespresso makes it even easier to recycle your capsules by...letting someone else do it for you!
Earlier, the brand would collect your capsules should you place another order online. Now, thanks to a new partnership with the Swiss postal services, Nespresso allows you to collect the used capsules in a new white bag and leave it in your mailbox, to be collected by your local postman.
To proceed:
reach out to your local shop to get the white bags (see picture). There we were given 3 of them in an envelope with instructions (see above pics) which the staff scanned, so I believe they are each attached yo my customer account and therefore my physical address.
collect up to 200 used capsules.
when full, close the bag carefully and remove part of the yellow ribbon at the top.
place the bag in the package section of your mailbox that the postman can open without a key [Did you know that this part is called in German Milchkasten, i.e. Milk box?] Make sure to leave part of the yellow tag outside to be visible and notify the postman.
Your bag will be taken at the time when the mail is delivered, from Mondays until Fridays.
Note that you can still leave your capsules at the Zug Okihof as usual.
We will give it a try in the coming weeks at home; while I never had any concern bringing the caspules to the recycling station, systematically re-using a ziploc bag to proceed has become quite a dirty way to do.
Feedbak to come at a later stage along with my waste management blog update!
And to be clear, here is a little disclaimer: I am a Nespresso customer but this article has been on my personal agenda for a while and is not supported in any means by the brand.
Other sustainability-flavoured disclaimer: capsule coffee obviously generates a lot of waste which is, in many places in the world, not taken care of in terms of recycling and disposal. We are lucky here in Swtizerland to have Nespresso manage a strong collection and recycling scheme for its capsules throughout the country. Should you want to reduce waste generation at all, go for good old bean bags.