Coffee pods

These usually cannot be recycled at home. However, some types/brands of coffee pods (and other difficult-to-recycle items) are collected by:

• TerraCycle (opens in a new window) who recycle them to create new products such as plastic baby bibs, notebook covers and park benches.
• Collect+ (delivered by Yodel): order recycling bags directly from any of the participating Podback brands (opens in a new window) online or supermarkets. Then take used coffee pods to your nearest drop-off point (opens in a new window).

Entirely aluminium coffee pods

Some coffee pods are made solely from aluminium but the coffee grounds inside are difficult to extract. Aluminium pods can go in your recycling at home provided there are no other materials in them and they are completely cleaned out. Check the information on the packaging to find out what materials the pods are made of. 

Compostable coffee pods

Some manufacturers make compostable plastic coffee pods. They are made from renewable materials such as vegetable starch and soy protein. Compostable plastic should be put into your general waste and not your food waste or garden waste.

In north London, food waste is processed in anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities. All packaging (compostable liners / Vegware / plastic bags) is removed from food waste by ‘de-packaging’ machinery and disposed of. This has to be done because non-compostable items are often put into the food/garden waste when they shouldn’t be, causing contamination. The de-packaging machinery we use is not currently able to distinguish between compostable and non-compostable packaging when removing contaminants.