Swedish start-up Vélosophy rolls out RE:CYCLE, a bicycle made from recycled Nespresso pods

RE:CYCLE, a stylish bicycle developed by Swedish start-up Vélosophy in collaboration with Nespresso from its discarded aluminium coffee pods, is now ready to roll out in the market. The bicycle, which takes 300 espressos each, took about two years for development. The bike will set an example for the recycling potential of billions of single-use coffee pods discarded every year. The limited edition model retails for €1,290 ($1,446).

The bike will also showcase Nespresso’s commitment towards fostering a circular economy. Nespresso uses aluminium in its coffee capsules for its remelting and recycling properties and the company has been investing resources to encourage customers to recycle their Nespresso pods. Previously the coffee pods were recycled into Swiss Army knives, fancy pens, and new coffee capsules.  The company has been constantly working on recycling efforts in order to counter the increased criticism for their single-use products.

RE:CYCLE is the brainchild of Jimmy Östholm, a former IKEA communications manager turned bike entrepreneur. He decided to use some of Nespresso’s recycled aluminium in his bicycle design being impressed by its recycling campaigns. The challenge according to him was to add rigidity and strength into the lightweight aluminium to meet bicycle safety standards.

“It was not rocket science in any sense. It just took some time,” he explains.

The bike’s design details hint at its origin. The frame’s plum colour represents the packaging of Nespresso’s popular Arpeggio variant and its bell is in the shape of a coffee pod. The carrier basket provides two nifty straps for securing to-go coffee cups.

Östholm hopes to encourage other product designers to work with recycled aluminium to drive recycling of single-use capsules. A recent study, commissioned by UK coffee start-up Halo, estimates that 56 billion single-use coffee capsules end up in landfills every year.

“Different products need different aluminium compositions…but just look at the recycling possibility,” he says. “Every bit of aluminium that exists could be recycled again into new products. I think that’s really the message here.”

He carried forward IKEA’s vision of quality, affordability and sustainability in his designs. Vélosophy will sell the bikes only online to cut down on retailing cost.

Through the bike, Nespresso aims to remind its customers to return their coffee pods for recycling.

“We’re illustrating to coffee lovers the potential of recycling their aluminium Nespresso capsules,” says CEO Jean-Marc Duvoisin in a press statement. “We have been inspired by working with Vélosophy, and I hope the RE:CYCLE bicycle inspires people to recycle.”

Nespresso has 122,000 collection points worldwide for used coffee capsules. Then they are processed in a certified recycling plant that can separate the aluminium shells from coffee grounds. They approximately recycle about 25% of their coffee pods.