Refill not recycle: Coffee capsule kit idea launched

Two French engineering students used lockdown to look at the problem of the waste created by coffee machine capsules – not by looking at how to recycle the capsules but at how to refill them and thus avoid the need for recycling.

Only one in five aluminium or plastic capsules used in Nespresso-type machines is currently reused. Kits already exist but are messy to use.

Jean de Boisredon, 20, and Thibaut Louvet, 21, set to work on the challenge, with more than 100 prototypes tested, as lockdown gave them the time.

They invested their savings in a 3D printing machine once on track. “We were in an ideal position to think! These capsules are such a waste,” Jean said.

Their solution, called Caps Me, looks like a traditional, airtight coffee container, with a top section filled with ground coffee. Twisting the bottom allows a used capsule to be placed in a holder, another twist locks the bottom to the container again, which is then shaken like a cocktail shaker.

This allows the coffee into the capsule and stamps it down.

They are selling packs (currently pre-order only to spring 2021) at Caps Me.

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