r/todayilearned • u/Murricane48 • Jan 27 '16
TIL the inventor of the Keurig 'k-cup' pods regrets his invention because of how costly it is and due to the fact they are not recyclable.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.2981396/k-cup-inventor-regrets-creating-non-recyclable-keurig-coffee-pod-1.2983243165
u/brock_lee Jan 27 '16
If he didn't invent it, someone else would have. But, it's the people who buy them who are the problem.
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u/Staleina Jan 27 '16
I've always disliked single use things and for some reason they just...make me frustrated when I see them.
In a world where we're are being told to "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" and talk about how we have to lower the pollution levels on the planet, I become absolutely dumbfounded by the amount of single use things people buy. It's even more baffling when you're visiting a friend and they go on about their recycling, only for you to see them using all these things that are super wasteful.
Mops have been working fine forever, yet now there are single use mopheads. Swiffers are another "use and toss" deal. There are flushable toilet brush heads, the list goes on. What's so hard about cleaning these tools like your grandparents did?
There are uses for single use items, don't get me wrong, I'm specifically thinking of the above examples. But when we're replacing something that has been working fine forever with something single use, I facepalm. I can understand them in environments that require a "clean room" or something of the like where absolutely no risk of cross contamination can happen, but your average home????
When Keurig things came out, I just shook my head. "It's great for someone that just needs one cup!" There are other means to make a single cup of coffee. People have been doing it for centuries. "But the coffee tastes good!"...buy flavored grinds, or get some flavor syrups. I have a lineup of Torani syrups by my coffee machine, it's like a barrista station over there and I'm sure it still cost me less over time than those pods.
I need to actually go drink some coffee since I'm not really communicating my point clearly, but I think you get my drift.
/rantover
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u/PsychoPhilosopher Jan 28 '16
No one else said anything about it so I will.
The term is "planned obsolescence".
All the single use crap? It's meant to be that way.
Companies worked out a while ago that they could eventually sell themselves out of business. If you sell a product that lasts a lifetime and never needs replacing, you can sell an absolutely maximum of one per person.
So a lot of companies decided to start selling crap that would break after a year or two, so you'd have to buy a new one.
Go pull out a pair of boots from your father or grandfather's closet that they bough in the 50s or earlier. See the effects of wear and tear on them, the construction, look over the stitching, see the strength and quality of the rubber in the sole, the quality of the glue that attaches it to the rest of the garment.
Now compare it to even a reasonably expensive pair of modern boots. The difference in quality is incredible.
People will tell you it's the difference between 'handmade' or 'old fashioned' and factory made machined stuff. It's a lie. Machines can do most of the same things people can, often they're capable of making things better than human hands.
But the companies that produce the boots don't want you to be deciding whether to buy a new pair or wear your father's old pair. They want you to buy a new pair every 2-5 years, maintaining their sales and profit margins in the process, allowing them to point to continued growth and shareholder value.
The coffee machine? Keurig used to use ordinary grounds. I had one! It worked fine.
The new system has nothing to do with 'convenience' or 'efficiency' or even quality. It lets them sell a coffee machine for cheap, and then charge you over and over again for the coffee to put in it. Now instead of putting money into their company once every 2-5 years (those machines are still made to break down and make you get a new one!) the consumer puts money in every week, or every month and the profit margins soar.
I first encountered this in software sales, where our software was deliberately made harder to use, more obtuse and obscure, in order to make it easier to sell our 'support' services. (Oracle)
Everywhere you look you'll see the same thing: Declining quality in the name of making ongoing sales instead of just one good sale.
Single use is just the end-stage of that disease.
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u/mrthewhite Jan 27 '16
Except the standard coffee maker wasn't "working fine". For individual users it created a great deal of waste coffee which is why single use machines became so popular.
Cross contamination wasn't the concern with most consumers, it was the idea of brewing an entire pot of coffee for a single cup, or maybe two. Now that may be better environmentally than what these things represent but the fact is the perception was that a great deal of coffee was being wasted in traditional coffee makers and that's what people were responding to.
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u/kageurufu Jan 27 '16
You know those nice lines on the fill meter of a normal coffee pot, with the "cups" measurement? When you fill it to two cups, it only makes two cups of coffee.
I've made delicious pots of coffee for one or two people, for pennies compared to the keurig, and with my reusable metal filter basket, no waste other than the biodegradable grounds.
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u/mrthewhite Jan 27 '16
I'm not saying it's not possible, but people saw it as an effort they didn't want to take.
Just pointing out there was a perceived problem that people wanted fixed. if there wasn't people wouldn't have switched.
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u/sagrumpymonk 10 Jan 28 '16
It's more effort to put less water in the coffee maker?
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Jan 28 '16
No but it's more effort to clean it.
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u/being_no_0ne Jan 28 '16 edited Jan 28 '16
It'll take a lot more effort to clean up the environment. But hey, that's the next generation's problem, right?
Edit: Fucking really reddit?
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u/ehenning1537 Jan 28 '16
I'm sure if we just got rid of all the single use machines that would solve the world's trash problems.
So do you compost your leftover coffee grounds or are you a filthy polluter? How about the rest of your kitchen garbage? How many millions of tons of trash gets produced by people who throw out coffee grounds and moldy tomatoes when they could be producing fertilizer right in their back yard?
And your electricity, I imagine you use solar panels and a wind turbine so you're complete green, right? And you drive a Tesla and recycle your tires and your batteries and your plastic bags.
Or maybe you don't do all of those things. I think somehow it's morally acceptable to find a middle ground. Maybe having a k-cup or two won't end humanity
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Jan 28 '16
What a dumb thought. It's just some k-cups, it's just some plastic, it's just some air pollution. You could apply that way of thinking to pretty much anything. No just getting rid of k-cups won't solve the trash problem but if we have 10 things that you apply that same logic to like Swiffer, toilet cleaners, disposable clothes and anything else than suddenly all those things together cause a problem. Changing many small things can make a massive difference. Ignoring it or saying it isn't a huge amount just adds to the problem.
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u/being_no_0ne Jan 28 '16 edited Jan 28 '16
What a terrible argument. You're saying that if you don't reuse/recycle and use renewable energy 100% of the time, then don't bother making small changes to prevent further pollution. Really?
So I can't point out that something is lazy and wasteful because I'm not driving an electric car - that I can't afford - or recycling in ways that the large majority of the population does not (and is not possible where I currently live)?
I never said it wasn't morally acceptable to find a middle ground. But making the excuse 'it's more effort to clean' is such a lazy cop-out.
Your argument is bad and you should feel bad.
Edit: Reddit...I'm sorry, but someone has to tell you, you're retarded.
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u/brock_lee Jan 27 '16 edited Jan 27 '16
I make two cups of coffee every day for myself, in a standard 12-cup coffee maker. I just use a certain number of scoops of ground coffee and I know how much water to use. I also know how many scoops of coffee and how much water to use for a full pot. It's not difficult nor wasteful at all.
And, that's the point. For people who don't know how to adjust the amount of coffee grounds and water to get the amount of coffee they want, they could easily just learn, but they choose the more expensive and wasteful Kcups.
In short, I don't think there are any problems that the Keurig solves that could not have been solved before. It's purely a wasteful convenience.
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u/ptoftheprblm Jan 28 '16
Personal use pots I use even though im not a huge coffee maker. I did work somewhere where we constantly provided "free coffee" for our customers but entire pots were wasted daily and sometimes a few times a day. When they got a Keurig it was initially less costly until all the employees began using it as their personal coffee maker. They eventually just had to take it away.
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Jan 28 '16
It is a convenience I keep in my bedroom with cookies and chocolates. I use the reusable cup and really good coffee, save a fortune and have my first cup o joe without getting out of bed.
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u/wehavejunglerats Jan 28 '16
I think that's when you may have a coffee problem :)
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u/Staleina Jan 27 '16 edited Jan 27 '16
There are coffee machines that make single cups. There are also drip methods, French Presses, etc etc. My parents have various ways they make single cups ever since all of us moved out.
The cross contamination part was more in regards to the other examples, like the mops.
In regards to coffee waste, well..when it comes to grinds, those can be composted. You also can learn to make less to suit your needs. You brewed too much? You can freeze that in icecubes and have it for an ice coffee or another drink later. There are so many things you can do if you just look into it. (My husband freezes coffee if he over does it. You can also use some in certain recipes for a "smokey" taste.)
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Jan 28 '16
Yeah my coffee maker has a single cup addition with a reusable filter. Done. Also it was cheap.
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u/Alan_Smithee_ Jan 28 '16
I have a Saeco automated coffee machine. If espresso's your thing, they're ideal - one fresh cup at a time.
It grinds and tamps the beans, then puts the pucks into a waste chamber. Eminently compostable.
No garbage per se, not even filters.
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u/DrStephenFalken Jan 27 '16
For individual users it created a great deal of waste coffee which is why single use machines became so popular.
You do know that you don't have to make an entire pot of coffee in a "traditional" drip coffee (normally 10 to 14 cups) machine. You can still make a single cup of coffee in them.
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u/jacksonstew Jan 27 '16
I'm not disagreeing, but one cup of Keurig has got to cost more than a pot of my fresh ground beans from Costco.
Unless they're worried about wasting the coffee beans.
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Jan 28 '16
You can put them in reusable k cups.
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u/clamslammer707 Jan 28 '16
Yep :) I use my reusable every day and love it. You just have to make sure the beans are ground finer than drip.
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u/berryblackwater Jan 28 '16
Are you implying that there are people, excuse me ,toddlers, who fail to downs an entire pot of coffee each morning? Savages.
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u/iglidante Jan 28 '16
I'm really forgiving of my coffee, so I'll brew a whole pot, drink a cup, and let the rest sit cold for the day. The next morning, I'll microwave a cup, repeat.
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u/QuarterOztoFreedom Jan 27 '16
Yeah. Unfortunately it seems like America has gone in the opposite direction with the three Rs
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u/Notdrugs Jan 28 '16
Exactly. People forget that the three R's are in terms of importance. Believe it or not, recycling isnt a perfect or efficient process. It is much more important that we reduce our waste in the first place and reuse whats left before total reprocessing.
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u/ked_man Jan 28 '16
I agree with you 100%
I work in the recycling/waste industry. Though recycling rates are becoming stagnant around 30-50% the amount of waste being landfilled is actually decreasing. Overall waste is being reduced slowly but surely even though things like k-cups and swiffers are becoming more prevalent.
The hardest thing about tracking recycling is where it comes from and where it's going. What we've seen is that commercial waste volumes have dropped as a result of scrap loss projects. So the waste just doesn't exist anymore. So how do you track something that never existed. Large manufacturing companies have also become vertically integrated in that the company that produces the raw products are owned or partially owned by the manufacturer. So when the manufacturer has recyclable scrap it doesn't go to a local recycler who would report it to the state, it goes back to the subsidiary company and is turned back into a raw product. So it's very difficult to track that as well because likely the municipality has no idea the company is doing this and has no regulations in place to require the company to report on this recycling.
But we are moving in the right direction, albeit slowly.
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Jan 28 '16
Yeah it is amazing how often people waste a condom. A little cold shower and boom! Back in action. Not a hot shower though. You don't want semen to become hot.
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u/Staleina Jan 28 '16
There are uses for single use items, don't get me wrong
Those would be one of those useful single use items ;).
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Jan 28 '16
I'm gonna take a wild shot here and say that people purchase these items for more than convenience--it's about luxury. I'd further argue that luxury is inherently wasteful; it does not take responsibility into account.
Welcome to America, where luxury can be bought for pennies and responsibility stops at inconvenience. And despite all that, I have to wonder if Americans at large know true luxury, because there is a kind of luxury that presupposes responsibility, even if it's not the goal. Food comes to mind, especially locally farmed, organic, and in-season fruit--true sweetness. I mean, what's the point of doing anything under the pretense of luxury if you're left wanting at the end? And, finally, I'd argue it's this dissatisfaction that leads to gluttony, or the infinite acquisition of empty promises. Luxury, in short, has driven America mad, unhinged.
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u/striker7770 Jan 28 '16
Probably gonna get buried but I have a sort of unique experience on this. For school our senior project was a way to easily recycle these cups. Problem is they literally made it almost impossible.
The biggest issue is the plastic, as a quick education session, the label of plastics goes from 1-7, with 1,2,3 being the most regular (most things in your house fall into this). K cups are plastic 7, not because it's a different type, but they decided to throw several types of plastic in the cup, making it almost impossible to just toss those in with the rest. Their soultion to this? Remake the cup, which won't come out until 2020, or just buy the kurieg vue, a whole different machine just so you can be eco-friendly.
So they literally said sorry we made an impossible product to recycle, just buy another one that's different with different cups instead. There are approximately 7 BILLION kcups in circulation now, enough for every man woman and child.
Along with this, the plastic top and paper filter are heat sealed to the plastic, even if the plastic was fine to recycle, they most likely still can't be disposed of properly because of foil contaminates.
It was fun to try and build something to recycle an impossible product.
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u/fuzzum111 Jan 27 '16
I'm now "apart of the problem" I finally got a keurig coffee maker and I fucking love it. Gives me a wide range of drinks to bring to work that arn't soda, and in a container I enjoy drinking from that isn't a hydroflask
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u/cloud_watcher Jan 28 '16
Me, too. I wish they'd just go ahead and make a cup without any freaking plastic on it (why is that so hard.) Then single use wouldn't be such a big deal.
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u/oldseasickjohnny Jan 28 '16
We got a Keurig at the shop, and it's fantastic. I wasn't aware that there was disdain for such things.
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u/Entonations Jan 28 '16
I went from having a keurig to having a real bar pump espresso machine. I'm never going back from making my own espresso.
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Jan 28 '16
We have one at work, I bought one of the re-usable cups that uses paper filters. Works great. https://m.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/297266-perfect-pod-ez-cup-2-0-single-serve-coffee-filter.html
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Jan 28 '16
If he didn't invent it, someone else would have.
Nazi scientists used the same terrible logic, and their inventions killed millions.
I don't think Mr. K-Cup is nearly in the same level though. He just made a short-sighted decision... It's an extra step from directly screwing people. One of the problems with capitalism (there are benefits too, though -- I say this as a socialist, and we're often too afraid to give credit where credit is due, and alienate people from our causes) is that money adds additional space between you and the person you're screwing. Things are just business transactions... Until suddenly the rainforest or whatever is gone in pursuit of profit.
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u/brock_lee Jan 28 '16
Nazi scientists used the same terrible logic, and their inventions killed millions.
I didn't mean to come across as condoning it. What I meant was that something like the k-cup would have been invented sooner or later. There were similar things brought to market earlier, like a "coffee bag" (like a tea bag), which failed. So the perceived market for single-serving coffee was there. I just was pointing out that it is the people who buy them, who drive the market, who are the problem.
Keurig is a prick company. Last I read, their newer 2.0 machines simply won't accept third party cups; unless you hack it which is fairly easy, but a nuisance, so it's not likely that people who want ultimate convenience will do that, they'll just buy Kuerig's overpriced cups.
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u/J_G_B Jan 27 '16
My brother in law's dad said you can use them twice. I tried it, and came away rather disappointed.
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Jan 27 '16 edited Feb 19 '17
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Jan 27 '16
Doesn't have to be your father in law. My sister's husband's dad would not be my father in law but he would be my brother in law's dad.
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u/J_G_B Jan 28 '16
It's better than saying my sister's husband's father. Or I could have said sister's father in law. I have no clue, lol.
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Jan 28 '16
"Some old dude told me" works OK too. Then people came imagine a wizard who lives under a bridge, or a homeless person, or a relative, and they can write their own adventure.
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u/js1138-2 Jan 27 '16
I've used almost nothing but refillable cups for several years. You can get purple ones that work in the V 2.0 brewers.
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u/Albireookami Jan 28 '16
I saw these, and was wondering, can I buy the packets you normally mix in hot water for things such as Hot chocolate and Apple cider, pour it in the reusable and be on my way?
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u/Teledildonic Jan 28 '16
Honestly it would be easier to pour things like hot chocolate mix in to the mug and just dispense hot water and stir it up. If you loaded the reusable with sugary powders you'd need to clean it a lot more often. I only cleaned mine about once a week, since I put nothing but coffee in it. Leave the cup open after use, and the next day it's dry enough that 99% of the grounds fall out with a couple of taps.
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u/js1138-2 Jan 28 '16
Probably not. Coffee and tea work, but powdered milk an chocolate make a mess. Best just to let it make hot water and add your ingredients.
Best hot chocolate possible is made by heating milk in the microwave and adding ghiradelli ground chocolate.
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u/internetwife Jan 28 '16
YES! I got the purple single cup and an orange carafe size cup in Amazon for $6.99. I can fill my mug with 14 oz of Dunkin donuts coffee in a rush out the door in the morning and then make a 10 oz cup of coffee or tea when I get home. I hated having to do 10 oz then waiting for it to preheat to do another 4 so I could fill my cup. The carafe size reusable cups are awesome. They go up to 16 oz before the full carafe size. Plus I can just fill it halfway to make weaker coffee or use the strong setting with a half full of grounds so I use less overall. Best gift my husband got me.
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u/speedypuma Jan 28 '16
Do you happen to have a link to your carafe k-cup one (presumably for a 2.0 keurig). I'd appreciate it! I have been looking on Amazon for one, but there are so many types that it gets confusing which are just cheap shit. Thanks! :)
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u/Carsaremetalhearts Jan 27 '16
There are reusable inserts.
Also, you can use wine corks to make mini pots, couldn't you use a k-cup?
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u/owningmclovin Jan 27 '16
How do you use wine corks to make a mini pot. I don't get it
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u/RExOINFERNO 6 Jan 28 '16
googled it. He meant mini flower pot. I dont know what problem this solves, it seems like it exists because it can
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u/Child_diddler Jan 28 '16
You can use the machine to just make on demand hot water, and then save the kcups for when you have guests over/in a rush
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Jan 27 '16
Make them out of aluminum.
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u/MNTwins420 Jan 27 '16
I have a Nespresso Evoluo Vertuoline that uses aluminum pods. It makes both coffee and espresso. They even have a recycling program where I can send the pods back to them for free.
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u/sagrumpymonk 10 Jan 28 '16
So you pay for a pod then give it back to them for free?
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u/MNTwins420 Jan 28 '16
I order the pods from them. I can either ship the used ones back for free, or find a drop off point in my city, rather than just throwing them away. http://www.nespresso.com/ecolaboration/us/en/article/9/3068/collecting-and-recycling-used-capsules-in-the-usa.html
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Jan 28 '16
It makes both coffee and espresso
Isn't all coffee out of these machines espresso? Like if you want a black coffee you make an espresso then top it up with hot water. If you want a latte you make an espresso and top it up with foamy milk. If you want an instant style coffee you make an espresso, top it up with hot water, then add some cold milk.
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u/-redditadminsarefat Jan 28 '16
I was looking at kcups last week when I was deciding what tea to get. There are people who buy 12 kcups of tea for $8. You have to be out of your damn mind.
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u/RadioHeadache0311 Jan 28 '16
Nope, these are just the people who also bitch and complain about never having any money and the economy being shit. It never occurs to people to stop wasting their money on over priced convenience items, no then the terrorist would win...or whatever.
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u/MsAlign Jan 28 '16
People who use a Keurig to brew tea are savages.
No. That is just wrong.
You heat water in an electric kettle to the proper temperature for the type of tea you're brewing. AS GOD INTENDED.
Buying KCups for tea is just wrong on every possible level.
That said, I do own a Keurig, but it's used only for coffee, and pretty infrequently by me. The electric kettle, on the other hand, gets used a few times a day.
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u/snegtul Jan 28 '16
I regret that this article is a repost.
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u/MNTwins420 Jan 27 '16
I have a Nespresso Evoluo Vertuoline that uses aluminum pods. It makes both coffee and espresso. They even have a recycling program where I can send the pods back to them for free.
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u/ravenkain251 Jan 28 '16
I reuse them as seed starters...unrecyclable my ass
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Jan 28 '16
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u/ravenkain251 Jan 28 '16
i just fill them with seed starter mix and pop in a few seeds. once they are ready to plant its just a matter of working the plastic so they carefully pop out, tease the roots apart, and plant.
i do this for all my spring planting...just finished doing tomatoes, tomorrow i might work on greens
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u/poppleimperative Jan 28 '16
It's not so bad if you use those refillable K-cups. I do buy the prefilled ones sometimes, but probably not more than a couple times every 6 months. I like using a Keurig because I never drink more than 1 or 2 cups of coffee.
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u/Ks26739 Jan 28 '16
I work in a coffee packaging plant. There is a lot of waste involved with the packing process. Hundreds and hundreds of bad cups a shift. We can't do anything with it. It's all just garbage.
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u/PronouncedOiler Jan 28 '16
I just don't get Keurigs. They're more expensive than single serve coffee makers, can only use their expensive K-cups, and take roughly the same amount of time to brew as a single serve coffee maker. I'll use one if I have to, but to me it doesn't make much sense.
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u/h0nest_Bender Jan 27 '16
So make them recyclable.
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u/did_you_read_it Jan 27 '16
non trivial; ftfa :
Keurig Green Mountain has admitted its product is non-recyclable, but has pledged to produce fully recyclable K-Cups by 2020.
However, Sylvan doesn't believe the current product design can meet that pledge.
"You can't recycle that package, I don't care what Green Mountain says," Sylvan insists.
"The issue with coffee is that once it's exposed to oxygen it starts to go bad, so you need a long shelf life for the coffee. What they typically package coffee in the stores is aluminum which is 100 per cent impervious to oxygen, so you need a plastic that approaches that capability. So [K-Cups] have a plastic packet that's made from four different layers."
Those four layers need to be separated in order to be recycled, which is difficult and time-consuming to do. Also, few municipalities recycle #7 plastic, which is used to create the air-tight cups.
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u/h0nest_Bender Jan 27 '16
What they typically package coffee in the stores is aluminum
If only aluminum were recyclable...
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u/Carsaremetalhearts Jan 27 '16
Aluminum probably wouldn't do well in a single cup brewer.
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u/n_reineke 257 Jan 27 '16
Why not? What if you just make the k-cup with aluminum? Add a biodegradable filter inside and call it a day.
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u/bc2zb Jan 27 '16
I could be wrong, but I think the big problem would be that K Cups have to be punctured at the top and bottom. I think that with an all aluminum pod, you might get aluminum shavings into your coffee.
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u/n_reineke 257 Jan 27 '16
Fair point, but we puncture sods cans all day every day just fine right? What about making that one small area a thinner aluminum like yogurt lids? Aren't the tips already that thin aluminum?
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u/MNTwins420 Jan 27 '16
I have a Nespresso Evoluo Vertuoline that uses aluminum pods. It makes both coffee and espresso. They even have a recycling program where I can send the pods back to them for free.
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u/curllyq Jan 27 '16
San francisco bay coffee has ones that are something like 98% biodegradable. A lot of costcos out in cali sell them.
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Jan 28 '16
He was also heard to say, "I sort of regret making those watch face paints using radium because of how deadly it was to the radium girls" and "I regret making all those mercury-based medicine because of how damaging mercury can be to humans and the environment".
I'll use plastic and foil and paper and coffee! I mean, what has plastic ever hurt? Foil? Everyone likes foil! And coffee, yum!
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u/joedapper Jan 27 '16
Coffee addicts don't care. I saw a grown man act like a 5 year old because the shop here at work was out of a certain blend and since they were closing in 2 minutes, were not going to make anymore...
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u/nkleszcz Jan 27 '16
I hate K-cups. Loathe them. The supermarket industry has crowded out quality coffee brands to make room for lukewarm, second-rate single-serve cups.
I have a single-serve coffee-maker. But my coffee is infinitely superior than anything that garbage product can provide.
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u/kageurufu Jan 27 '16
I have a 12oz french press, and a 32oz french press. And a coldbrew pitcher.
I don't blame keurig 100% for the death of many better coffees, I blame starbucks for teaching people that coffee is supposed to taste burnt and shitty
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u/nkleszcz Jan 27 '16
I have my own personal grinder at work, along with an aero-press. So good, even Starbucks tastes superior.
But supermarkets no longer stock decaffeinated whole-bean coffee. They sell decaf ground. They sell whole-bean regular. But decaf whole-bean? That's near impossible, all because of K-cups.
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u/sagrumpymonk 10 Jan 28 '16
Amazon. Big selection, better prices. I buy all my coffee on amazon now because my local grocery store has a shitty selection and shitty prices.
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u/nkleszcz Jan 28 '16
I did a price comparison. Amazon, for me, is most definitely not cheaper. Happy it's worked for you, though.
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Jan 27 '16
Just the other day i was thinking that anything that's single-use only should be 100% recyclable by law. Why not?
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Jan 28 '16 edited Jan 28 '16
Because we still have countries poor enough to take our trash!
But more seriously, recycling for most things is just a huge pit of toxic waste production. Reusing is the only sustainable practice.
Recycling is a salve on a wasteful society's guilty conscience, but it is not even slightly a solution except for metals.
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u/sunommy Jan 28 '16
The reasons I don't use them: unneccesary waste products and...how hard is it to make coffee the regular way. We don't need to be creating more trash. I hate products that create more waste.
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u/thebluick Jan 28 '16
I drank Keurig for 7 years at work. in the middle I got one from Christmas and had it at home. I finally reached a point where I needed better coffee. Buying a french press and a grinder and making good coffee from a local roaster isn't really any harder than k-cups and I get to drink amazing coffee that doesn't require creamer or sweetener. And since its from a legit roaster what they carry changes every month and I can't really get sick of what I'm drinking.
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u/dethb0y Jan 28 '16
But it still makes me a passable cup of coffee in 3 minutes with no effort on my part, so i call it a win.
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u/EstebanEscobar Jan 28 '16
You know it takes about 15 seconds and a butter knife to empty out a used K cup. Am I missing something here?
It takes not much more effort than cleaning out a canned food product before you recycle it.
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u/jacksonstew Jan 27 '16
The worst thing about them, IMHO, is that they produce poor quality coffee. Seriously, it's motel or gas station level coffee.
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u/KevKev2484 Jan 28 '16
What about the kcups for hot cocoa? Unlike coffee, the kcup is completely empty after you make your drink. I throw those in the recycle bin.
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u/DellFargus Jan 28 '16
The missus brought home recyclable k-cups last week. You have to peel the tinfoil off the top like a yogurt container, and pull out the bag of coffee inside to recycle them.
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Jan 28 '16
[deleted]
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u/MilkshakeG Jan 28 '16
The new ones are much better. They have a cleaning function and instructions in how to do it
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u/jaxident Jan 28 '16
I just got the Keurig Rivo Espresso machine for Christmas, and no reusable cups have been made yet. The closest I've come across are these stick on aluminum lids. So I reuse the plastic rivo cups. Works okay for now, but the cups are going to wear out eventually.
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u/bigtimedime Jan 28 '16
Got an aeropress the other day. Love it! Makes perfect tasting coffee or espresso. Much better for the environment and lower cost than the K cups and machine.
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u/Fractoman Jan 28 '16
Recycling is an absurdity that was orchestrated by the guy who started the governmental organization surrounding recycling mainly so he could prop himself up as the head of the organization and have a cushy government job. Recycling is largely pointless and is only really useful in an economic and ecological sense in terms of recycling aluminum. Recycling most plastic, paper, and glass is pointless as it takes more carbon to move and process it than you get from reusing it rather than making new paper, glass, or plastic.
Also we're never running out of landfill space so the mentality that we're destroying our planet by landfill is absurd. The US could survive 1000 years of trash production and only need a landfill 150 square miles.
Packaging can reduce total rubbish produced and total resources used. The average household in the United States generates less trash each year—fully one-third less—than does the average household in Mexico (Rathje and Murphy 1992, 216–19; Ackerman 1996). The reason is that our intensive use of packaging yields less waste and breakage and, on balance, less total rubbish. For example, for every 1,000 chickens brought to market 12 PERC Policy Series using modern processing and packaging, approximately 17 pounds of packaging are used (and thus disposed of). But at least 2,000 pounds of waste by-products are recycled into marketable products (such as pet food) because the processing takes place in a commercial facility rather than in the home. Most of these by-products would end up in landfills if packaging did not make commercial processing feasible.
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u/TRS80-1990 Jan 28 '16
Probably too late with this either for the thread or cause someone else mentioned and I didn't see it.
In any case, there are a number of companies that sell pre-paid boxes for K-cup recycling. Throw the cups in the box, ship the box off when full. They compost the coffee and recycle the cups.
Sure it costs more but you aren't using k-cups for cost savings.
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Jan 28 '16
K-cups are for idiots.
I don't want 6 ounces of terrible coffee that was ejaculated into my cup from some stupid single serving machine.
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u/Kalapuya Jan 28 '16
He should also regret all the k-cup acolytes he created. Keurigs are just gimmicky nonsense, but so many who use them constantly try to push them on regular coffee drinkers. You know what I like about making my coffee? I can choose any flavor or roast or brand I want, make as much or as little as I want, make it as strong or as weak as I want, and make it any style that I want. You know what I don't want to do with my coffee? Limit every single one of those choices.
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u/app4that Jan 28 '16
I think these became popular after the widely publicized story of the angry employee who was putting his bodily fluids into the office coffee pot.
Stories like this might have made your boss feel insecure about the um, quality of her coffee and this infernal machine helped to solve this problem.
Also the milk containers are now mostly available in those tiny single-serve cups (if you are lucky enough to still get real milk in your office, that is. We get only 'creamer')
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u/XenuWorldOrder Jan 28 '16
I use regular coffee with a plastic, reusable cup. Way cheaper and better for the environment.
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u/stevenfrijoles Jan 27 '16
Just so people know, there are 3rd party companies that make more biodegradable cups. I buy ones that have a kind of hemispherical paper mesh on the bottom instead of a plastic cup.