Nespresso fund helps Sims recycle aluminium coffee capsules and other small aluminium scraps in New York

A fund from Nespresso  has helped New York City residents to recycle aluminium coffee capsules and other small pieces of aluminium, which were not considered as recyclable earlier. Such lightweight items included alongside plastics, glass and other metals in curbside bins were not sortable for value before Nespresso’s initiative.

After a partnership between the city's Department of Sanitation (DSNY), Sims Municipal Recycling and Nespresso, Sims added a new nonferrous metal processing line which could process such small items.  Nespresso funded US$1.2 million, which covered the majority of the cost for the processing line. As told by Sims General Manager Tom Outerbridge, the new processing line includes numerous components, such as conveyors and an SSI shredder. 

Sims used to extract ferrous and nonferrous metals using magnets and eddy currents, but small, light items such as Nespresso's coffee capsules were tough to extract.

"By weight, a capsule is about 90% coffee and 10% aluminium. That's not an aluminium product our customers would want," Outerbridge said. "I give Nespresso a lot of credit ... They came forth with a pretty big financial contribution to make [recycling] work for their material."

After installing the new nonferrous line, Sims can now separate the materials into a decent quality that are sold to manufacturers. It is noteworthy that Nespresso pods can be easily tossed into curbside recycling bins because they are completely made of aluminium

Although these metals do not make up a significant portion of the stream by weight, they are commonly received and difficult to market. "The investment was really important for Sims to maximize the capture of that aluminium. From Sanitation's perspective, this is a positive thing," Bridget Anderson, DSNY's deputy commissioner of recycling and sustainability said.