The Swiss coffee producer Nespresso, part of the Nestlé food group, will market its own biodegradable coffee capsules for its home coffee machines next year.
The company wants to fend off competitors who are trying to conquer a place in this lucrative market by offering fully compostable coffee capsules for Nespresso machines.
The paper-based capsules for home use will be launched in France and Switzerland in 2023, Nespresso CEO Guillaume Le Cunff said. Like the capsules announced earlier this month by Nescafé Dolce Gusto, another Nestlé coffee brand, they contain a thin film of compostable biopolymer in the paper seals to keep the coffee fresh.
Nestlé is feeling the hot breath of, among others, the largest Swiss supermarket chain Migros, which launched its own fully biodegradable coffee capsules in September, which require their own machine. Migros’ CoffeeB pods are available in Switzerland and France, one of Nespresso’s largest markets, and will also be launched in Germany next year.
When introducing its coffee pods, Migros claimed that traditional aluminium pods generate about 100,000 tons of waste yearly, which ends up in landfills without being recycled.