Recently, I read an article about the environmental impact of Keurig K-Cups. Keurig, which was bought out by Green Mountain in 2005, has taken over the single cup coffee market. They offer hundreds of options for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and chai drinks, but at what cost? Although many of the coffees offered by Green Mountain are Fair Trade or organic, they are all still placed in non-recyclable K-cups. Though Green Mountain has been trying to develop a way to create a “greener” K-cup, so far they have only invented the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. This reusable coffee filter allows you to use any kind of coffee you want in your Keurig single cup coffee makers. The idea is clever, but doesn’t this seem to deter Keurig users from buying more K-cups and instead filling it with grocery store coffee brands?
Here’s an except from EarthPM.com about the amount of K-Cups that end up in landfills:
Last year alone, over 1.6 billion (yes, billion!) cups were used. My calculations say that this is enough K-cups to circle the earth one and a quarter times. And they all go into landfills after their seconds of use and stay there for hundreds or thousands of years. And that’s just Keurig. There is also Tassimo, Senseo, and others. Further, the forecast for K-cup sales are 3 billion in 2010 and 5 billion in 2011. So now we are talking about a chain of K-cups from 2009, 2010 and 2011 made up of 9 or 10 billion units and circling the earth eight times!
How do you feel about this? What do you think they can do to improve the “green-ness” of K-Cups?
Related posts:
- Green Mountain Revv and Revv Pulse Coming to CoffeeRocket.com!
- Green Mountain Revv: A New K-cup!
- Top Ten Keurig K-Cups of 2009
- Keurig K-Cups: Brewing One Cup of Excellence at a Time
- Green Mountain Coffee Buys Timothy’s World Coffee
Tags: going green, green mountain, k-cups, sustainability
I really hope Keurig get their act together with a recyclable k-cup soon. This is important to me as a consumer of their brand.
wow….I didn’t realize the impact the non-recyclable k-cups have on our environment! If the fast food places and other single cup makers can make their product with a more earth friendly substance why can’t Keurig!
Love the K-Cups, but mostly Coffee Rocket pricing. Great Deals……
I have the keurig reusuable k-cup coffee filter and it works wonderful…It is certainly agreat way to go ” Green.” Hopefully more people will start using it.. The single cup is so convienent that is is hard for people to make the change.. but it is worth the environment to do so.. smiles, Cher
You have to believe that there are a few bright folks at Keurig who are working on this k-cup challenge…if this whole is not addressed a competitor will probably fill the void. The single cup momentum that Green Mountain / Keurig created with k-cups can surely be used against them. Sort of like Microsoft dominating early on but Apple mastering it and winning out over time.
Gut tells me Keurig is only concerned about stock price and the mighty dollar!
I LOVE THE K CUPS FOR THEIR CONVENIENCE BUT ALSO LIKE THE ADAPTER SO THAT I CAN STILL USE THE SAME BRANDS OF COFFEE OR OTHERS AND SAVE ON THE COST WHICH ALSO MAKES IT MORE AFORDABLE TO OTHERS TO OWN IT.
I USE THE K CUPS OFTEN WHEN IN A HURRY ETC. BUT ALSO LIKE THE ADAPTER.
LOVE THE KEURIG
I wasn’t aware of this. I would be willing to pay more for K-cups if they offered a recycled version.
This is one of the reasons why I’ve stayed with pods instead of moving to K-Cups.
I love the K-Cups and have the reusable one as well. I do have to say there is more convienence with the K-Cups but I feel better using the reusable one. Hopefully some smart one will come up with a solution soon to help all of us K-Cup users feel better about drinking our wonderful coffee from Coffee Rocket everymorning
Love the K cups! Love coffee Rocket more! Would especially like to see them more enviromentally friendly, but won’t stop me from getting that fresh cup I am always want. We are spoiled.
I love K-Cups and our Keurig Brewer but I did not realize the environmental impact. Maybe they could come up with a biodegradable k-cup that will decompose quickly in the landfills. We can send a man to the moon, why not this? Coffoo Rocket has great prices and service! Our office has been very pleased with them.
Didn’t Green Mountain buy up all the independent K-Kup makers? They still sell them under different names but its all GM. I read they are working hard on an alternative to the current K-Kup.
I’m sure a greener Kcup will be developed, but I think the Keurig machines have
helped some of us produce less trash. For me, the convenience means I’m
throwing away a Kcup but I’m also not buying a coffee in a disposable cup like I
did every morning before I got my machine.
Using the reusable k-cup allows me to use Dunkin Donuts coffee in my Keurig saving money and it is also greener.
Ok here is my question to all the commenter’s:
Why do you all like K-cups more than Pods?
By the way you can’t get any greener than pods.
Guess I’ll have to duct off my old Chemex and wait for the brew.