Podback Recycling Has Changed, What Does It Mean For You?

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks globally, with the pod market expected to reach 29.7 billion Dollars this year (2025). Unfortunately, these single use pods generate approximately 576 000 tonnes of global waste (based on the average weight of a capsule of 12 g).

With this in mind we previously covered Podback, a scheme which allows you to collect your used pods and send them off for recycling. While we covered the lack of transparency the company offers, the initiative has reached the kerbsides of more than 1 million homes across the UK.

However, Podback has changed how you send their pods to them, with recent reviews from their Trustpilot reflecting a negative stance. So what has changed?

How The Recycling Scheme Has Changed?

As mentioned, many UK residents have utilised kerbside collections, not something that is offered for where we live via Podback's official website. Therefore, we were previously offered the option of dropping the pods off in one of their bags via a local Yodel parcel shop such as a newsagent or a supermarket.

Presumably to cut costs, the scheme has minimised their drop-off collections to many parts of the UK, encouraging people to use their local supermarket. One of the households affected is us, and we never received an update to inform us about this change. An undated post by Yodel explained that from the 17th March they would no longer generate new shipping labels.

Reading reviews on Trustpilot, the Podback account seems to suggest that rural areas will still reap the benefit of Yodel drop-offs, whereas people within a 'vicinity' of a drop-off point will be forced to use a supermarket.

Why Is The Change A Problem?

Using our story, we bagged up the pods and would walk to the nearest newsagent, which would pass the bag(s) onto Yodel. Instead, we now have to use a supermarket that we'd have to drive to.

While I understand the premise of shopping and being able to take your coffee pods for recycling at the same time. Though due to the schemes' infancy, with only one branded supermarket accepting recycling within a 5-mile radius, means we aim to take more when travelling in the vicinity. Additionally, due to the lack of supermarket support, some people may ditch the scheme due to their nearest supermarket, such as Sainsbury's, Tesco, etc not enrolled in the scheme.