Caps’Me has developed a reusable, stainless steel coffee capsule for Nespresso, Nescafé and Senseo coffee machines – designed to refill in seconds and enable over 1,000 repeat uses.
Compatible with Nespresso Original, Nescafé Dolce Gusto and Senseo coffee machines, the capsule comes with a patented shaker system that claims to refill the capsule in ‘a few seconds’ – avoiding the slow, messy process of refilling the capsule by hand. The format is compatible with any ground coffee on the market, whether store-bought or locally sourced.
“Households already own the machine,” says Caps’Me co-founder Jean de Boisredon. “The problem is the capsule. Our job is to make reuse so easy that nobody wants to go back to single‑use.”
A single capsule is believed to replace over 1,000 single-use alternatives and generate over 8 times less waste. It is thought to halve the cost of an average cup of coffee compared to a single-use format, and to help households save an average of €250 a year, depending on the coffee used.
The reusable capsules are currently sold at over 1,500 locations across France, and Caps’Me claims that over 100 million capsules have already been reused.
This format is expected to align with the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation’s legal mandates, including the requirement for all packaging placed on the EU market to be designed for recycling by 2030. It avoids the requirement for all soft single-serve coffee pods to be compostable by 12 February 2028.
Now Caps’Me is looking to form at least one partnership in every European country to upscale its product. Potential partners include distributors, supermarket and hypermarket chains, electronics and home stores, coffee specialists, and online retailers.
In other coffee news, Nestlé has recently announced that it will discontinue the paper-based capsules for its Nespresso brand. It attributes the decision to consumer feedback and product quality.
Additionally, multiple Dutch companies have completed the Clean Cups project, which sought to develop a home-compostable coffee capsule for Nespresso systems. However, the resultant capsule is not expected to be commercialized due to market and regulatory conditions.
