Finally you can now recycle coffee pods in Bristol (2025)

A billion are used every year in the UK but almost all end up in landfills, now, they can transform into fertiliser and biogas

The tens of thousands of plastic or foil coffee pods that are used and chucked away by people in Bristol every day usually end up in landfills, but now - finally - there is an answer.

People across the city are being urged to collect and store their used coffee pods - the kind that come out of small kitchen coffee makers - and drop them off when they next go to one of the city’s three household recycling centres.

A company called Podback, which is running the UK’s first coffee pod recycling scheme, has installed drop-off points at each of Bristol’s three household recycling centres at Avonmouth, Bedminster and St Philips. The problem-solving scheme was launched today, Wednesday, April 16.

There are dedicated Podback drop-off containers at each of the recycling centres and different sections for plastic or aluminium pods. The small pods have been a growing feature of the coffee market in the UK since sales began to rise in the early 2010s with the appearance of the first small kitchentop coffee machines.

By 2015, sales had passed £100m a year, and by 2019 it was estimated that people in the UK would use a billion of the small capsules that year. It was estimated in 2018 that more than 12.6 million households had one, and half of all coffee machine sales were coffee pod systems, overtaking espresso and filter coffee machines.

But that has created a huge problem for local councils. They can’t be easily recycled, and the ones made out of plastic or aluminium foil end up in landfills.

The Podback project was launched four years ago and this is the first of its kind for Bristol. Pods dropped off at the recycling centres will be split into plastic or aluminium ones. Podback first shreds them to remove the used coffee, which ends up in anaerobic digesters to make fertiliser and biogas.

The plastic shells go to East Yorkshire where they are recycled into garden furniture, and the aluminium pods go to Cheshire to be melted down and turned into drinks cans or car parts. “It’s great to be able to partner with Bristol Waste Company to expand the Podback service to Bristol and to make coffee pod recycling more accessible for people in Bristol,” said Podback boss Rick Hindley.

He further stated: “Bristol is a city committed to sustainability, and this collaboration will empower residents to easily recycle their drinks pods, saving them from going to waste and ensuring valuable materials can be recycled and given a new life. We hope this initiative will serve as an inspiration for other cities across the UK to make improvements to their recycling infrastructure.”

Sarah Burns is the sustainability and engagement manager for Bristol Waste, the council-owned waste company. She said: “We want recycling to be the norm.

"Anything people can’t reduce or reuse, we want it to be as easy and possible for them to recycle. By giving people in Bristol the opportunity to recycle coffee pods, it will help reduce the impact on the planet, tackling the climate crisis and protecting our environment.

"It will also help get as much as possible out of the city’s black general waste wheelie bins." Podback accepts more than 80 per cent of all aluminium and plastic pod brands sold in the UK, and that includes coffee, tea, milk and hot chocolate pods.

“Bristol has a reputation of doing what’s right for the planet,” said Cllr Martin Fodor, who chairs the council’s environment and sustainability committee. He added: “We’ve held the top spot for recycling rates amongst English core cities for eight years in a row.

“Lots of our residents enjoy a morning coffee from a coffee pod machine. Now we have the Podback recycling scheme at all three of Bristol’s recycling centres, Bristolians can bring their used coffee pods along when they next visit.

"This is yet another product that people here can recycle, helping the planet and the city."