Costa Coffee announces in-store pod recycling trial

Costa Coffee has begun a trial partnership with Podback, a UK coffee pod recycling programme, to introduce coffee pod recycling in 142 of its stores across the UK. As part of the trial, customers can pick up free Podback recycling bags at participating stores, fill them with used coffee pods, and return them for recycling.

The trial includes 133 Costa Coffee stores located within Tesco outlets throughout the UK and nine additional Costa Coffee locations in the Swindon area. Podback-branded recycling points have also been set up at these Tesco stores to make recycling easier. The programme accepts both plastic and aluminium coffee pods from any Podback member brands, including Costa Coffee pods compatible with Nespresso, Tassimo, and NESCAFE Dolce Gusto machines.

The new recycling points began rolling out in August, complementing Costa Coffee's existing in-house recycling initiatives. Through this collaboration, Costa Coffee and Podback aim to increase the number of pods sent to specialist facilities where materials can be separated and properly recycled.

Liz Higgins, Head of Sustainability at Costa Coffee, said: We are always looking for new ways to make it easier for our customers to recycle our packaging. Through this trial with Podback, in-store drop-off points will offer coffee pod users the chance to conveniently recycle their pods with us – whether they are Costa branded or not. The new front-of-house recycling units will be supported by increased messaging in store, which we hope will act as a reminder to customers when visiting our participating stores. The trial will allow us to gather valuable customer feedback and insights, which we will use to enhance our future recycling solutions for pods, cups, and other packaging materials.

This initiative is part of Costa Coffee's broader efforts to expand recycling options for items that are difficult to recycle at home or kerbside. In 2018, Costa Coffee launched the National Cup Recycling Scheme with Valpak to support cup recycling infrastructure across the UK, a programme now backed by several other major coffee brands.