Aldi UK is set to become the first British supermarket member of the Podback recycling program, helping customers to recycle their used coffee, tea, and hot chocolate pods.

As part of its membership, the supermarket will introduce its Retail-owned Brand pods into the Podback scheme in an industry first, whilst also helping to promote the free recycling service to shoppers throughout the country in over 980 stores.

From early next year, Aldi customers can visit the Podback website to either order recycling bags, which can be filled and taken to one of 6,500 Collect+ drop-off points or register for curbside collections if they live in a participating local authority area.

Podback launched last year and is the first coffee pod recycling service of its kind in the UK. It was set up by Nestle and Jacobs Douwe Egberts UK and membership has since grown to include 16 brands from across the coffee sector.

Pods recycled through Podback are reprocessed within the UK. Recycled aluminum pods are used in the manufacture of beverage cans and car components, and plastic coffee pods into items such as furniture, industrial packaging, and building products. The used coffee grounds also go through anaerobic digestion to produce a combination of biogas and soil improver.

Aldi is one of the market leaders in own-label coffee pods, and also sells branded products as Specialbuys. By using the Podback service, customers could help to recycle up to 268 tons of plastic and 20 tons of aluminum Aldi own-label coffee pods each year.

Richard Gorman, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi, said: “We’re pleased to be joining Podback on this journey – especially as the first supermarket member.

“It’s important to us that we help customers do the right thing once our hot drink pods have been used, and we look forward to seeing how our partnership with Podback progresses.”

Rick Hindley, Executive Director at Podback, said: “We are delighted to welcome Aldi as the first supermarket brand member of Podback. This marks a key milestone for the program, and we are looking forward to working with Aldi to promote our service to their customers. We hope other retailers will follow Aldi’s lead and offer their own-brand pod customers the opportunity to recycle through Podback.”