Czech Designers Make a Bike Using almost 1,000 Recycled Coffee Capsules

This year, the company replicated its popular Festka Doppler model, a singular combination of titanium and carbon, with an even more unexpected material—aluminium coffee capsules.

“Aluminium has a long history of use in the bicycle manufacturing industry. Creating a bicycle from recycled aluminium capsules and giving this material a second chance was a big challenge for us,” says Michael Moureček, co-founder of the company.

He says that the bicycle “reflects the founding principles of Festka manufacturing: perfect functionality and exclusive looks.”

Capsules were donated by Nespresso.

Nespresso’s Marketing Manager, Andrea Petrová, said improving Nespresso’s recycling capacity on the Czech market is currently one of the company’s priorities.

Although aluminium recycling is quite common in the Czech Republic, most recycled material ends up in automotive production. To find producers willing and able to work with small quantities of recyclable material for use in the production of a limited number of tubes proved a challenging task.

Local aluminium foundry Al-Solid cast the tubes from the coffee capsules.

A total of 995 Nespresso capsules went into production of the bike; the process took three months. The melted aluminium capsules reveal themselves in a kaleidoscopic display of twenty-one vibrant colours on the rear wheel.

The first Festka Doppler for Nespresso was officially presented to the public in March during Mercedes Benz Prague Fashion Week. It was sold at a charity auction in support of the Tereza Maxová Foundation for 160,000 CZK.