21recyclinginternational.com | January/February | 2025
BUSINESS
Swiss Barec Group is mostly known for its activities in car and paper recycling. But the company also runs an
advanced facility to process used aluminium coffee capsules. Its success is due, not least, to Switzerland’s efficient
postal system, as Barec’s Roger Blesi explains.
coffee capsule recycling rate in the
world. Today, 65% of all aluminium
capsules consumed are collected and
recycled. Blesi: ‘We target to reach
75% by 2030 and thanks to all the
effort put in it looks we’re gonna get
there.’
The high collection score is due, not
least, to the efficient Swiss postal sys-
tem. Switzerland has around 3.9 mil-
lion households, and most residences
have at least one so-called ‘Milk Box’
or mail box. ‘It’s a multi-purpose
household delivery and collection sys-
tem. Originally designed for milk deliv-
eries, these boxes have evolved to
serve various modern needs, including
coffee capsule delivery and collection
of used capsules.’
Blesi adds that, according to Swiss law,
these boxes must be at least 30 x 30 x
30 cm to accommodate small packag-
es. ‘As you can imagine this is of great
help in reaching high collection and
recycling rates.’
As well as home collection, there’s a
widespread collection system of 3 700
pick-up points across the country.
‘From these hubs, capsules are further
collected and shipped to the Moudon
facility.’
SOLVING THE PLASTICS ISSUE
Some plastic coffee capsules are also
collected and new technology is need-
ed to tackle this issue, according to
Blesi. ‘We are working on a new proj-
ect, an extra sorting line which is
designed to recycle even the smallest
plastic pieces.’
Each bale contains some 40 000 capsules.
The plant can handle 15 000 tonnes of capsules per year.
A HAIRY BUSINESS,
TOO
Alongside the coffee capsules
recycling facility in Moudon,
Barec Group processes hair col-
lected from salons all over
Switzerland. It’s a social business
activity, according to Roger Blesi.
‘Since we pick up coffee capsules
from these salons, we thought:
“Why not also collect hair and
transform these into new prod-
ucts?”’
‘At Recup’Hair, hair waste is
transformed into a valuable raw
material for the environment. Hair
can absorb up to eight times its
weight in oil and we take advan-
tage of this.’
WATER AND COFFEE GROUNDS
Material is brought in by trucks carry-
ing 40 cubic metre containers full of
capsules collected all over Switzerland.
They enter the two lines plant to be
sorted, dried and shredded. ‘Mind
you, 50% of the weight of a capsule is
water, so the drying process is a big
thing,’ notes Blesi. The hot air drying
process runs on renewable heat from a
nearby biogas plant.
Apart from the water, the capsules
contain aluminium, plastic and coffee
grounds which are all separated and
recycled. The site handles roughly 700
tonnes of capsules per month. The
plant’s total capacity is 15 000 tonnes.
IF WE HADN’T HAD THE MILK
BOX…
Switzerland has one of the the highest
20-21_businesscoffeecapsulerecycling.indd 21 29-01-2025 16:31