Regularly singled out by environmentalists, portioned coffee has not said its last word and is trying to renew itself through its packaging. CoffeeB has even made it its main selling point. This new player from the Swiss cooperative Migros entered the market at the start of the school year with the Globe machine and small balls of coffee stored in a very thin vegetable envelope. Historical actors are not left out. Thus, the pioneer Nespresso announces the arrival of new pods “home compostable”.
Capsules made from compressed paper
To move away from aluminum in its current capsules, the brand turned to sustainable packaging specialist Huhtamaki. The CEO of the company explains that he developed an envelope with “paper pulp from wood fiber […] compressed into the shape of a coffee capsule”.
Nespresso adds that a biopolymer film completes this new envelope on the inside to protect “coffee from oxidation during transportation, storage and high pressure extraction”, and that the set is compostable at home, with supporting certification (TÜV Austria). However, according to the company, 45% of French people practice domestic composting of one or more types of bio-waste. For the others, it is specified that these capsules will be accepted in the public collection of bio-waste in France.
New envelope for new mixes…
However, the portioned coffee giant does not intend to give up its aluminum envelopes, which it defends by recalling that they can be recycled and are made from 80% already recycled aluminum. They should therefore be kept for the current coffee blends, while four new blends “from the Nespresso AAA program for sustainable quality” should see the light of day with the new paper envelope, including an organic coffee.
…but not (yet?) for Vertuo machines
At first, only owners of Nespresso Original machines should benefit from it. You will therefore have to wait if you have opted for the most recent and versatile Vertuo, which we imagine however fewer in circulation. In any case, the first Nespresso capsules with a paper envelope should not be launched until spring 2023 in France and Switzerland, then in 2024 in other markets.
No price is mentioned, an obviously important point. There are capsules from €0.39 per unit in the Original range – which already makes coffee expensive – and the most expensive are currently billed at €1.50. Let’s hope that these new capsules will be closer to the first ones in terms of price. Remember also that Nespresso is not the only one to want to offer paper packaging. Others are already doing it, especially for Nespresso Original machines, but few are still those that can be composted directly at home.