No waste eh?
"Ecological impact
Unless the capsule is recycled, each cup of Nespresso coffee produces aluminium waste, the main material of the capsule. There is 1g of aluminium in one capsule (including the cover) compared to about 13g for a soft drink can. Recycling aluminium uses down to 5% of the energy needed to produce aluminium from ore.[51] To begin with, Nestlé did not implement any recycling programs outside of a few parts of Switzerland.[51] This led to a large per-cup waste generation, which was criticised by some user groups.[52] More countries now have recycling facilities[citation needed]. France and Switzerland are some of Nespresso's biggest buyers so the recycling facilities are more accessible in these countries. In the UK, recycling was rolled out starting in London, Bristol and Bath and now covers all of the mainland. When fresh capsules are delivered by courier (a CO2-intensive process), spent ones are collected in bags provided for the purpose. Used capsules can be also taken to any Nespresso Boutique for recycling. A recycling program has also been introduced in The Netherlands, where consumers have the option to return their used capsules to a limited selection of stores or hand them over to postal services. In the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, consumers can drop off used capsules at Nespresso boutiques for recycling. Additionally, in the US, Nespresso provides pre-paid UPS shipping bags to return spent pods. In Ireland when new capsules are delivered the used capsules can be collected by the courier for recycling. There is, however, no financial incentive anywhere for users to do so.
In recent years some third-party products, such as the Outpresso device, have also emerged that ease the removal of coffee grounds from expended capsules, allowing the aluminum to then be recycled through standard municipal recycling programs.[citation needed]
A minority of capsules are recycled: Nestlé itself states a current rate of 50% in Switzerland and Germany, but only 2% in France.[9] The proportion of recycled aluminium in the capsules is not exactly known, but is estimated to be less than 30%.[53] The company has launched a program called "écolaboration" to try to remedy the problem.
In addition to the recycling programme discussed above, Nespresso states 'ecolaboration' includes a AAA sustainability programme, focused on helping farmers who grow and supply Nespresso coffee. Nespresso claims it does this by teaching farmers best business and growing practices. The company claims participating farmers are not obliged to sell to Nespresso, although the company says many choose to as Nespresso claims to offer a fair price for the coffee and help in all aspects of the farmers' business.[54]
Unlike the regular capsules, Nespresso Pro capsules cannot be recycled because they are made of a mixture of plastic and aluminium. Since the layers of material are sealed to each other, the Pro capsule can only be burned. The refillable capsules from rivals Nexpod and PodCafe are obviously much more environment-friendly. This has led the World Wide Fund for Nature and other environmental agencies to state that "the most reasonable solution is still the purchase of bulk coffee"