Milan has reached an agreement for a home collection service for used aluminum coffee capsules.

Rome, July 11 (Adnkronos) – A home collection service is now available for used aluminum coffee capsules: the Palazzo Marino Council has approved the guidelines for a program agreement between the City Council, Amsa, Nespresso Italiana, and the National Aluminum Packaging Consortium (Cial) to launch the service's first pilot project, thanks to a public-private partnership that effectively integrates the separate waste collection service for urban waste.

The collection will be operational from September 2025 and will be carried out at home, throughout the municipality of Milan.

The service can be activated when ordering a new capsule on the Nespresso.it website at checkout by selecting the "Return and recycle your used Nespresso capsules" option, as well as through the app and customer service. It will not incur any additional costs. You can return up to two bags containing only used aluminum capsules to the courier, using the Nespresso recycling bag or regular bags. The aim of the initiative—which other companies that produce and sell coffee or other infusion capsules can also join by signing the same agreement—is to further improve aluminum recovery processes, a circular economy approach. Aluminum is an infinitely recyclable material, which significantly reduces landfill waste.

The service also optimizes transportation and reduces the environmental impact of logistics thanks to the use of electric vehicles in partnership with Wora Delivery, which allows for delivery to an intermediate storage point before being processed by a plant that separates aluminum and coffee. The project adds another recycling option to the existing 14-year-old option of returning used aluminum capsules to Nespresso stores and affiliated recycling centers nationwide. The collected capsules will be returned to the dedicated aluminum capsule collection and recycling system 'From Chicco to Chicco', developed in 2011 thanks to a memorandum of understanding between Nespresso, Cial, Utilitalia, and CIC (Italian Composting Consortium). This system allows the two materials that make up the capsule to be given a second life: the aluminum is melted down and 100% recycled, and the coffee grounds can be transformed into compost and used in a rice paddy, where the rice is repurchased and donated to the Food Bank and the Progetto Arca Foundation.

"We are delighted with this agreement with Nespresso and Cial, as well as Amsa, for the collection of coffee capsules. This is a concrete and responsible gesture that represents a further step in the aluminum recycling chain and the circular economy, which will contribute to increasing waste sorting in our city," said Elena Grandi, Councilor for the Environment and Green Spaces. "Even small daily actions, like the correct disposal of these capsules, can have a significant impact on the environment."

"This project," explains Monica Pellegrini, Operations Director of Nespresso Italiana, "marks an important new step in our ongoing commitment to recycling and recovering aluminum coffee capsules. This commitment began in Italy over 14 years ago with the 'Da Chicco a Chicco' project, within which this new agreement is part. The aim is to also recycle the capsules collected by the home and service delivery service. It also represents a unique initiative in Italy that we hope will serve as a virtuous and circular example of concrete environmental and social impact." "During this experimental phase," adds Matteo Di Poce, Sustainability Specialist at Nespresso Italiana, "we estimate that in the Municipality of Milan alone, through the home delivery service, we will collect and recycle over 80 tons of capsules over the course of a year, recovering over 50 tons of used coffee and more than 5 tons of aluminum for recycling."

"Our Consortium's commitment to ensuring aluminum never ends up in landfill drives us to experiment with and support new challenges and new systems for capturing this precious metal, which is 100% and infinitely recyclable. Thanks to the separate waste collection of millions of citizens, aluminum packaging in Italy is recycled with excellent results, accounting for approximately 70% of the total amount released onto the market, placing our country among the top in Europe," said Stefano Stellini, General Manager of CIAL.