Nespresso Donates 100,000 Lbs. of Compost from Coffee Grounds to City Plants LA

Corporate Compost Leadership Council member Nespresso has donated 100,000 pounds of compost generated from their spent coffee pods to Los Angeles-based nonprofit City Plants LA. The donation is the next phase of Nespresso’s Grounds to Grow LA project, which works to divert waste from landfills and return nutrients to LA’s soils.
 
The Nespresso coffee pods composted through this program were returned to the company by consumers in the LA area at thirteen designated drop-off sites across California. The pods are processed by Nespresso’s longtime commercial composting partner and USCC Member AgChoice; the spent grounds are removed from the aluminum pods, ensuring that the two materials can be recycled separately. 
 
City Plants LA, who will be managing the compost donation, is a nonprofit that “manages public-private partnerships that create a greener, more equitable, and climate-resilient city by planting trees.” The compost will be distributed to residents in wildfire-impacted areas, which will help to remediate impacted soils, support the survival of impacted vegetation, and support the growth of new vegetation. City Plants expects to distribute more than 8,500 trees to residents in Los Angeles as a part of their work.
 
The Grounds to Grow LA project is a great example of how circular economies necessitate involvement from so many different sectors of the public sphere. The 100,000 pounds of donated compost would not have returned to LA soils without work from the private companies Nespresso and AgChoice, the nonprofit City Plants LA, municipal help from the City of LA, and, of course, individual citizens separating their spent coffee pods from their landfill waste. Through partnerships like this, great strides towards a circular economy can be made. 
 
You can learn more about this project by clicking here.