Keurig Spends 10 Years Developing A Recyclable Coffee Cup (boston.com)

Last year Keurig Green Mountain sold over 9 billion single servings of its coffee in plastic "K-Cups" -- none of which could be recycled. "Placed end to end, the pods sold in a year would circle the globe roughly 10 times," reports the New York Times News Service, noting the company spent the last 10 years developing a backwards-compatible cup that could actually be recycled. In the mid-1990s, "Keurig began buying the containers -- made from a blend of plastic that is tough to recycle -- in bulk, never expecting that it would one day sell billions a year. But because Keurig machines were designed specifically for the pods, changing course soon seemed virtually impossible." One environmental advocate complained "There are a lot of ways to make coffee that don't use so much packaging. Making coffee wasn't something that needed to be reinvented." But the company may still face criticism because their new cups can be recycled -- but not composted.

Comments

Or you could use paper cups instead

[jsse]

It might surprise some hardcore environmentalists that using paper cups, or just using more paper on anything else, might be more environment friendly than you might imagine. (The following facts might be considered as flamebait again but please read on with patient before you mod.)

Papers are not made from cutting wood in rain forest anymore (some furniture, on the other hand, still are). 95% of the raw materials in paper are coming from trees, and these trees are carefully planned to grow and harvest. Various "Tree Funds" were raised every 10-15 years for raising money in building such tree farms.

Unfortunately, these "Tree Funds" are very sensitive to market. When there are less demand in papers, these funds would diminish, and in turn less tree farms would be built. Less tree farms, less trees, less oxygen-producers, more carbon dioxide, more severe the green house effect and so forth.

Encouraging paper-saving would probably lead to more green house gases. The irony...

Re: Or you could use paper cups instead

[Anonymous Coward]

Elemental chlorine bleaching has been banned in Europe since the 1980s and totally chlorine-free has had an over 50% market share for a long time. Moreover, in recycling paper, chlorine and chlorine compounds have never been very common.

Re:You don't have to use keurig brand cups

[93 Escort Wagon]

These k-cup compatible pods are ~90% biodegradable. Keurig should license their design post haste.

Those are the ones we buy, actually. On Amazon they're relatively inexpensive ("relative" to other K-cups... not the good ol' coffee pot).

I was against getting a Keurig, but my wife really wanted one - so I eventually relented. I really hate the thing. It probably makes more sense for people who don't drink much coffee; but, if you were a pot-a-day family, the cost of replacing that with a Keurig is ludicrous. We're spending easily $50 a month, just on coffee! And it doesn't seem like those things actually save you any effort - it's just that it's spaced out throughout the day. If it made really good coffee, that might sway me... but it's worse than brewing a pot.

I like to tell people that, if my wife pre-deceases me, even before I call the mortician I'm putting that Keurig in the trash. I hate it that much.

Re:You don't have to use keurig brand cups

[PopeRatzo]

I like to tell people that, if my wife pre-deceases me, even before I call the mortician I'm putting that Keurig in the trash. I hate it that much.

I hear you. They make bad coffee, are more expensive and mess up the environment.

You get a french press and you don't even have to buy filters. Hell, I can still make a decent cup in an old fashioned percolator that'll taste better than a k-cup machine.