On June 17, Veolia and the founding members of ARCA - Nespresso France, Nestlé France and Jacobs Douwe Egberts France (JDE) - joined forces to relocate the recovery of aluminium coffee capsules to France. From now on, capsules collected anywhere in the country will be deconstructed by Veolia at its Boves site in the Hauts-de-France region, before being recycled to make new objects and compost for local agriculture.
Within ARCA, which they founded in 2019, Nespresso France, Nestlé France and JDE France collect and give a second life to their coffee capsules: they are simplifying sorting and recycling 100% of aluminium capsules in France by rolling out the collection and recycling system launched by Nespresso in 2009. Until then, aluminium coffee capsules were recycled in the Netherlands.
A new deconstruction process for recovering two resources
Thanks to Veolia's technologies, a capsule recovery solution has been developed at its Boves site: a capsule deconstruction process separates the aluminium from the coffee grounds. Once recovered, the aluminium is used to produce new objects such as bicycle frames, cans or car engines. And the coffee grounds, which represent 90% of the weight of a used capsule, are turned into compost for use in local agriculture.
To maximize the recovery of used capsules, 5,000 collection points have been located in pick-up points, waste collection centres and partner supermarkets.
There is another collection solution for recovering aluminium capsules: in municipalities equipped with the system, 35% of French people put their capsules in a sorting bin with other small metal items. By 2022, 50% will have access to this solution. To find the nearest collection point (in France), visit the website: https://www.recyclage-capsules.com/ou-recycler
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> Veolia's expertise in waste management
> L’Alliance pour le recyclage des capsules en aluminium (ARCA)