Nestlé comes up with its own biodegradable coffee cups

The Swiss coffee producer Nespresso, part of Food Group Nestlé, will market its own biodegradable coffee cups for its home coffee machines next year. The company wants to fend off competitors, who are trying to gain a place in this lucrative market by offering fully compostable coffee cups for Nespresso machines.

The paper-based capsules for home use will be launched in France and Switzerland in 2023, said Nespresso CEO Guillaume Le Cunff in an interview with the French news agency AFP. Like the capsules already announced earlier this month by Nescafé Dolce Gusto, another coffee brand from Nestlé, they contain a thin film of compostable biopolymer inside the paper seals to keep the coffee fresh.

The new Nespresso capsules, which can be used in the brand’s existing machines, will not replace the aluminum pods, according to Le Cunff. With the biodegradable coffee cups, the concern wants to offer an alternative for those who want to compost their capsules instead of taking them to recycling points or back to the store. “It is a complement. The goal is to offer choice,” said the CEO.

Among other things, Nestlé is feeling the hot breath of the largest Swiss supermarket chain Migros, which in September launched its own fully biodegradable coffee cups, which need their own machine. Migros ‘ CoffeeB pads are available in Switzerland and France, one of Nespresso’s largest markets, and will also be launched in Germany next year. Migros, when introducing its coffee cups, claimed that traditional aluminum pods generate about 100,000 tons of waste annually, much of which ends up in the trash can without being recycled.