Great service to get Royalmail to collect from your doorstep ( you have to now book via Nespresso website but didn’t used to). We fill a bag to the line each month, it would be good to get more places... See more
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Really terrible service. Impossible to locate recycling bags. Tried every Starbucks in my area, also in London Kings Cross station, also various Morrisons. None of them had heard of Podback. Wrote dir... See more
Company replied
Bad idea to stop recycling coffee pods through Yodel. It worked! My new local drop off point (Tesco) won't accept them as podback aren't picking up, they are throwing them in the skip!....Next neare... See more
Company replied
Without the Yodel dropoff, which I've being doing for the last year, their nowhere in a reasonable distance for me to recycle my pods. There are barely any locations in London. It's disappointing as... See more
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Company details
Written by the company
Podback: the UK's coffee pod recycling service. We are working with coffee brands, retailers, local authorities and recyclers to give your used coffee pods a new life—from plastic and aluminium turned into new products to coffee grounds used to create renewable energy and soil improver. With a growing network of drop-off points available in supermarkets, coffee shops and recycling centres, we’re working on ways to make recycling pods part of your regular routine. Podback is a not-for-profit organisation, funded by our member brands.
Contact info
Suite 4, 4 Hilliards Court, Chester Business Park, CH4 9QP, Chester, United Kingdom
- podback.org
2.7
Poor
129 reviews
Replied to 100% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 2 weeks
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Pod back drop off changes
I can no longer drop off my coffee pods at a local Supermarket which I have been doing for some years and cannot print a postage label which is accepted at my local Co-op Yodel drop off point. My only option is a 20 mile round trip which I do not intend doing. Sadly they will now have to go in the bin !!
Go back to your old system Podback. It worked 😡
March 20, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Dave,
Thank you for leaving a review and we appreciate your feedback. We’ve recently made changes to our drop-off service, which means we may not be collecting pods through Yodel in your area.
Due to the distance you state, Yodel may still be available to you. We suggest you complete the Recycle Checker and zoom in on your location. If Yodel does not appear, you will need to use one of our supermarket drop-off options.
This approach is aligned with recycling solutions on offer for other hard-to recycle materials (such as batteries and plastic film) and will enable customers to drop off their pods as part of their daily lifestyles.
We are working hard to expand our drop-off network further to increase the options for customers, and are currently in discussions with other supermarkets, coffee shops and other local authorities about introducing coffee pod collection points at their sites.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
This is a really great service and I’m…
This is a really great service and I’m quite shocked by the negative reviews.
I’ve only just discovered podback, I was sent plenty of bags to get me started and I dropped my first two off at ASDA yesterday, simple convenient process.
The bonus it less plastic in landfill.
March 22, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Sara,
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a glowing 5 star review! We appreciate your support of our mission, that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.
Kind regards,
Podback Team
They changed the drop off process
They changed the drop off process, forcing a 15 mile round trip rather than the 50 yard walk to the local shop. They've dropped the ball for us, and many others it looks like...
March 20, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hello Mark,
We’ve recently made changes to our drop-off service, which means we are no longer collecting pods through Yodel in your area.
Following customer feedback and the successful trial of pod collection points at retailers and local authority recycling centres, we have decided to prioritise the expansion of our drop-off network across these locations.
This approach is aligned with recycling solutions on offer for other hard-to recycle materials such as batteries, printer cartridges, water filters and plastic film and will enable customers to drop off their pods as part of their daily lifestyles.
We are working hard to expand our drop-off network further to increase the options for customers, and are currently in discussions with other supermarkets, coffee shops and other local authorities about introducing coffee pod collection points at their sites.
Best wishes,
The Podback Team
They have stopped Yodel drop off
They have stopped Yodel drop off. And with this being 2025, I get my groceries delivered and don’t frequent a physical supermarket and I don’t plan on driving to one just for this. Well done for ensuring the reduction of pods you get back Podback.
March 19, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, we value your feedback.
Since we launched in 2021 we have regularly had feedback from customers who have found the Yodel service complicated to use, in particular requiring labels and bags being refused in Yodel stores or by Yodel drivers.
Due to this and to bring the service in line with other items such as printer cartridges, water filters and vapes we made the decision to dial back our Yodel service and move to supermarket drop-off options.
We have seen a considerable number of service users move away from Yodel and chose to drop off their pods at a local supermarket during they weekly shop by choice before the service change.
We understand your frustration and we hope you choose to continue recycling with Podback.
What a fabulous idea
What a fabulous idea. Worked perfectly for me at morrisons. Hope Podback are making money out of the metals. I never had faith in my local council to do anything other than landfill them
March 13, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Jen,
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a glowing 5 star review! We appreciate your support of our mission, that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.
Kind regards,
Podback Team
Every time I go to any Costa as shown…
Every time I go to any Costa as shown in my area - they HAVE NO bags. This system is quite hopeless. We are not able to currently recycle and the used pods go in the bin . Go back to posting out bags or at least get organised and give costa centres some bags !!!
March 9, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for leaving a review and we appreciate your feedback. You can still get bags direct from the Podback website. If you go on to our interactive map and then choose your nearest supermarket location, you will see the option to create an account. If you do this, you will be sent out bags direct from us.
Also, we are aware of the bag issue at Costa and will soon be distributing an new batch of bags to all the stores in the trial.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Now run out of bags written to…
Now run out of bags written to Morrisons and left request after request on podback website! Nothing! Now forced to throw pods into general rubbish. Very disappointed as I try my best to recycle
March 4, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Martin, Thank you for taking the time to leave a review and we have taken your feedback onboard.
I can see that you have raised a support ticket with us on 15/02/2025 and we directed you to create an account on our website and we can send you bags directly. I have also checked our database and cannot see that you have done this. If you are having issues when creating an account please let us know by starting a chat on our website. Once you have an account you will receive your bags in a couple of days.
As far as we are aware, Morrisons have a supply of bags at their distribution centre. Please can you start a new chat on our website and let us know which Morrisons store did not have bags and we can investigate this with our account manager.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Very easy to recycle.
It is the second time I have used pod back and so easy. After looking at podback site, You can either take bag to a yodel outlet and they print off label for return or you can take to some shops if easier. If you need more bags, site also tells you where to get them from
A great idea and methods to recycle your coffee pods.
February 8, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Chris,
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a glowing 5 star review! We appreciate your support of our mission, that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.
Kind regards,
Podback Team
Useless to contact
Useless to contact. I have been trying for 2 months to register to recycle my pods. System seems to fail when pressing the register button. No way of directly contacting them to check my registration and get recycling bags. Totally frustrating and no incentive to continue wasting my time.
January 27, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Keith, We apologise that you have not had a positive experience. I have searched through our customer service tickets and cannot find a request from a Keith Morgan. Please can you go over to our contact us page https://podback.org/contact-us and we will do our best to support you.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Podback
Podback
Having attempted to use this well-advertised and apparently seamless pod recycling scheme for the first time today I was looking forward to 'doing my bit' thinking: "well done Podback, this is ace...".
And it was.
For a while.
I'd received the free recycling bag with my online order of a few hundred (I'm addicted to caffeine) L'Or coffee pods. All good so far.
I loaded a shitload of them up to the fill line on the bag. Easy peasy.
Sealed the bag as instructed. Yup, still going to plan.
Went onto the podback website to find my nearest drop off point. Wow! Asda, one of the biggest supermarkets in my little market town had drop off points at both of their stores. The website even told me how to complete the drop off. Not yet 'better than sex' but still really impressive.
Hopped into my car, drove to the nearest of my local Asda stores, parked, followed the instructions, went to Customer Services and said, with a big smile on my face "I have some recycling for you"
Response: "Sorry Sir, we don't take them. Neither does big Asda (a local description for the big impressive store, other side of town). We keep getting people coming in to try to drop them off with us, sorry".
In a slightly less happy mood I drove home, discussed it with my puppy dog who'd missed me while I was out saving a little bit of the planet, and agreed I should contact podback via the website and let them know. But of course...
There are no contact details except for one of those annoying little floating chatbot invitations. So on this occasion I used it.
"Hi, we’re updating our chatbot. If you have any questions about our services, please visit our FAQs or send us a direct message on our social media channels."
FAQ doesn't have a section related to misleading information and I am currently in the process of getting rid of all my social media to keep away from other avenues of misleading information.
Anyway, my puppy dog want to go out for a walk now and I need to sign off before he has an accident in my hall carpet.
I'll drop this recycling bag in my big bin of landfill waste to be collected Friday.
January 23, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Tony,
Thank you for leaving us a review, We are sorry to hear that your local Asda store has told that they are not accepting Podback bags.
Asda customer service should be able to print a label using their handheld toyou terminal. As this is a new service and only launched this week, it may be that staff are not fully aware of the service.
Please can you go to our contact page https://podback.org/contact-us and provide details of the store you visited, and we will take this up with our Asda account manager who will investigate the matter.
Kind regards,
Rhys Podback Team
Dreadful service from Royal Mail
Dreadful service from Royal Mail. Have now refused to collect my bags four times, saying that they're not in the safe space (literally left today's on my front door steps in full view of the street to make it easier for them and they still supposedly can't find them!). When I ordered two collections, they even took one and left the other saying it wasn't in the safe space...which was the same for both collections.
And there's absolutely no way of contacting anyone to discuss it.
January 23, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Scott,
Thank you for leaving us a review. The Royal Mail doorstep collection service is offered and managed by Nespresso. Podback has no involvement in this service. You will need to contact Nespresso customer services for them to investigate with Royal Mail.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Bin men chucking the pods in the bin.
Our council (Wolverhampton) are funded to collect the pods but the bin men just chuck them in the bin. I'm not going to bother anymore.
January 23, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Amy, We apologise that you have not had a positive experience. We are working to improve the service. We will contact our account manager at Wolverhampton council to investigate. Please can you follow the link to our contact form, providing your address and we can then see which teams are working your route.
We hope you continue using Podback and support us in our mission, that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.
Kind regards,
The Podback team
Bad Service
UPDATE REVIEW: I still didn't received the bags. Customer service sent them again without contacting me directly and the order was sent to the wrong address. Without a possibility to change the address, I have decided to close my account immediately, hoping to create a new one. You are not even allow to do that. I will NEVER use this service again! I wanted to join this service as soon as I bougth my coffee machine. I ordered the bags on the 23rd of December and the order was marked as shipped within the same week, amazing! Especially because I was expecting delays during the Xmas period. on Saturday the 18th of January nothing has arrived yet, still waiting after almost a month. Cannot even reorder the bags as out of stock until end of Feb. I have contacted Customer service and still waiting for a response from them.
January 18, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Stefania,
We apologise that you have not had a positive experience. We are working to improve the service. I can see that a member of the customer service team responded on 20/01/2025. You should have received a tracking number email from Royal Mail. We hope you have now received your Podback bags.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Podback offers a convenient service for…
Podback offers a convenient service for recycling coffee pods, particularly with the drop-off points at locations like Tesco Barking. However, the service is inconsistent, with issues such as missing receptacles and bags at Costa locations, leading to storage problems and frustration for staff. The process can be time-consuming, requiring the use of non-recyclable plastic bags, and some locations mistakenly serve as rubbish bins. While the idea is solid, improvements are needed for it to be fully effective and convenient for all users.
November 21, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Joran,
Thank you for leaving a review. We are continually working to improve the service. The Podback bins at Costa Coffee shops are part of a trial which we hope to expand. Please could you let us know which Costa Coffee stores apart from Barking which is having issues, we can then advise our contacts at Costa Coffee. As this is a trial, we want to make every effort to ensure its success.
I can assure you, our bags are recyclable and are recycled here in the UK by one of our reprocessors.
We hope you continue using Podback and support us in our mission, that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Answer your customers messages.
Why is it made so difficult to get the pods returned? Not used this system before, but we followed all the instructions with regard to waiting for the return bags etc. Which we now have. Took the first lot to our local collection point, only to be told we cannot accept them without a return label (which they don't or won't print). Having no means to print a label ourselves, we contacted Podback via their messaging service for advice. No reply. Sent another message giving 24 hours to reply or will close the account and chuck the pods in the bin. For the love of me I cannot understand why trying to do you bit to help the planet etc is made so difficult.
November 27, 2024
Unprompted review
Macclesfield store not accepting
Have tried 2x to take to the Macclesfield Costa in tesco, but they still won't take as they don't have the facilities
November 2, 2024
Unprompted review
Unintuitive website combined with a poor offer
Unintuitive website combined with a poor offer. Drop off point is inconvenient,
November 4, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi John,
Thank you for leaving a review. We apologise that you have not had a positive experience. We are working to improve the service and offer more options to get bags and drop off full ones.
We are working hard to expand our Drop-off options; We are currently running a trial with Morrisons. A limited number of stores have bins and bags can be collected at Customer services. It has been confirmed the trial will be expanded to nationwide in the next few months. We are also running a 5 month trial with Costa Coffee where 133 Costa Coffee shops in Tesco supermarkets are now handing out and taking in full Podback bags.
We hope you continue using Podback and support us in our mission, that every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.
Kind regards,
The Podback team
No label required just walk straight in…
New Tesco Costa drop off great.....No label required just walk straight in and pop it in the collection hopper. Simpler than yodel system .....great
October 21, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Thank you for leaving us a fantastic 5-star review! We're so happy to read you're making the most of the Costa Coffee trial and finding the drop-off more convenient than Yodel. We truly appreciate your support in making this trial a success.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Easier and quicker
Quick and easy to use - just take the bag to Costa. No problems.
September 13, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Tony,
Thank you for writing us a lovely 5-star review! We're so happy to read you're making the most of the Costa Coffee trial and finding the drop-off more convenient. We truly appreciate your support in making this trial a success.
Kind regards,
The Podback Team
Terrible communication and has no idea how to send bags…
This company is terrible at communication and they don't seem to be able to understand nor respond effectively to simple questions. More importantly, it is impossible to get hold of bags which is their one job!!!!
October 18, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Podback
Hi Katie,
Thank you for taking the time to leave your review. We’re really sorry to hear that your experience with Podback hasn’t met your expectations.
We have noted that you have raised a support ticket with us on our website and have emailed you for further information. If you could answer our questions so we can understand why your are experiencing issues, it would be appreciated.
We are also running a 12 week trial with Costa Coffee where 133 Costa Coffee shops in Tesco supermarkets are now handing out and taking in full Podback bags. us the store locator on our website to see if there is a participating store near you. https://podback.org/store-locator/costa-coffee
If you have any further concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via the chat feature on our website.
Best regards,
The Podback Team
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