Sur La Table stores nationwide have recycling receptacles for both brands, while Williams-Sonoma accepts Nespresso at select locations. All capsules are sent to recycling pioneer TerraCycle where the leftover coffee inside the capsules will be sent to an industrial composting facility while the actual packaging from the capsule will be recycled into a variety of new products.

As America's culture of convenience continues to flourish, single-cup coffee makers have become increasingly popular among coffee drinkers. But beneath those expedient one-cup coffee pods lies a growing environmental problem. Like most single-cup coffee pods, K-Cups consist of a combination of plastic, aluminum, organic material (coffee grounds) and a paper filter. While all said items can be easily recycled separately, the K-Cup as a whole cannot be recycled on a municipal level. "It's that hybrid packaging that makes it very hard for traditional recycling companies," said Albe Zakes, global vice president of public relations at the recycling company TerraCycle. "If you think of something as simple as a chip bag for example, a chip bag is fully recyclable. The challenge is that it's both plastic and aluminum, a hybrid packaging, which is very common, especially in food and beverage." Since 2009, TerraCycle has partnered with various single-serve coffee manufacturers to provide recycling solutions for spent coffee pods. By teaming up with Tassimo, Mars Drinks, Nespresso and more recently Illy, TerraCycle has developed a customized take back program for each company that has helped divert millions of coffee pods from landfills across the country. "Over the last couple years, TerraCycle has already collected I believe 25 million coffee capsules of the various applications through all these programs," said Zakes. "As we expand with more companies, bringing Illy into the fold, we've really ended up in a place where we work with basically everyone except for the K-Cup." Despite reaching out to the company multiple times, TerraCycle has not been able to develop a relationship with Green Mountain, Zakes said.    

More than a tenth of US households — 12 percent — own single-cup coffee brewers, says the National Coffee Association, and that number is on the rise. But one-cup coffee pods are not easily recyclable, and the coffee industry is looking for more sustainable options, writes Waste & Recycling News. Cafection, a manufacturer of ground and whole bean single cup coffee brewer equipment, says it offers a more environmentally friendly single-serve coffee pod. Products use paper fil­ters, which are biodegrad­able, and they do not use plastic discs. The hybrid packaging of coffee pods — which usually include both plastic and aluminum — makes it difficult for traditional recycling companies to handle, says Albe Zakes, global vice president of public relations at the recycling company TerraCycle. TerraCycle has worked with a variety of coffee manufacturers to create take-back programs and handle the recycling of used pods, diverting millions of them from landfills. Nespresso, for example, worked with TerraCycle to provide a second life for used coffee capsules through the Nespresso Capsule Brigade. Consumers must create a TerraCycle account, ask for supplies online, collect and package their Nespresso capsules, download a free shipping label from TerraCycle, and drop the box off at a UPS location. TerraCycle says the metal capsules are melted down and turned into new aluminum products. Residual coffee is separated and sent to an industrial composting facility.

While convenient, the single-use coffee pods are exactly easily recycled. As America's culture of convenience continues to flourish, single-cup coffee makers have become increasingly popular among coffee drinkers. But beneath those expedient one-cup coffee pods lies a growing environmental problem. "These things aren't readily recyclable, if recyclable at all," said Darby Hoover, senior resources specialist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Anytime you've got this kind of small, single-use packaging option, especially when there are clearly alternatives, it just leads me to question why you would promote that system over another that works just as well for many applications." Approximately 13% of the U.S. adult population drinks a coffee made in a single-cup brewer every day, according to a 2013 study from the National Coffee Association. That's up from only 4% in 2010, said Joe DeRupo, director of communications for the NCA. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., which acquired Keurig in 2006 and has since become the largest manufacturer of single-use coffee brewers in the country, has been struggling with the recyclability of Keurig's K-Cups from the beginning. Like most single-cup coffee pods, K-Cups consist of a combination of plastic, aluminum, organic material (coffee grounds) and a paper filter. While all said items can be easily recycled separately, the K-Cup as a whole cannot be recycled on a municipal level. "It's that hybrid packaging that makes it very hard for traditional recycling companies," said Albe Zakes, global vice president of public relations at the recycling company TerraCycle. "If you think of something as simple as a chip bag for example, a chip bag is fully recyclable. The challenge is that it's both plastic and aluminum, a hybrid packaging, which is very common, especially in food and beverage." Since 2009, TerraCycle has partnered with various single-serve coffee manufacturers to provide recycling solutions for spent coffee pods. By teaming up with Tassimo, Mars Drinks, Nespresso and more recently Illy, TerraCycle has developed a customized take back program for each company that has helped divert millions of coffee pods from landfills across the country. "Over the last couple years, TerraCycle has already collected I believe 25 million coffee capsules of the various applications through all these programs," said Zakes. "As we expand with more companies, bringing Illy into the fold, we've really ended up in a place where we work with basically everyone except for the K-Cup." Despite reaching out to the company multiple times, TerraCycle has not been able to develop a relationship with Green Mountain, Zakes said. Green Mountain is experimenting with various materials for a new, recyclable K-Cup, though nothing is in production yet. "I know and I appreciate that Green Mountain has been trying to wrestle with ways to make its pods more environmentally sustainable pretty much the whole time that they've been offering them," said Hoover, the senior resources specialist for the NRDC. "But incinerating them instead of recycling them doesn't reduce the need to rely on virgin source materials to make oodles more of these disposable pods." The question remains whether the convenience of single-serve coffee systems is worth the overall environmental impact.

Who knew the Nespresso pods were recyclable?   Interesting collaboration with TerraCycle. The coffee grinds inside are scooped out and composted… and the pods (which I had no idea were 100% aluminum) are recycled just like soda cans would be recycled.

These one-off “pod” beverage machines seem to be everywhere these days. A bunch of them use metal and/or plastic pods. Ever wonder what happens to the spent ones? Not all are created equal, none of them are particularly environmentally friendly by default. If you're not already brewing your own...