cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/12988150
Keurig, the company that got us all hooked on single-serve coffee systems and has helped us churn through billions of plastic throwaway K-cups, just reinvented its single-serve system in what may be the most sustainable way: K-Rounds.
K-Rounds are plastic and aluminum-free, highly-compressed coffee ground pods held together by an ultra-thin layer of plant-based material (alginate). As one Keurig exec described it, “It’s just coffee in those pods.”
…
If successful, K-Rounds could have a measurable impact on the environment. According to one report, we create approximately half a billion metric tons of coffee capsule waste each year.
“Sustainable”
Coffee can, single piece of packaging for months on end.
Vs.
K-cups, paper, dyes, increased packaging volumes, increased energy in production, increased raw materials, increased trips to the store to purchase more, 6 month shelf life. Sustainable /s
Shit, you can get a little reusable basket for a Keurig and put regular coffee in it. They just made a less sustainable version of something that exists.
Really all the machine does is heat and measure the water for you.
Do people really not know that single cup electric makers have been a thing since at least the eighties? Mine is one my dad bought in 85, a black and Decker one.
One scoop of coffee in a washable filter (which, btw is still the original one, no issues), pour water, hit the switch, walk away. Makes a pleasant gurgle when finished.
And it isn’t like there weren’t single cup options before that, they just weren’t necessarily electric. Shit, my grandfather would make single cups with a cloth tea bag and a percolator stuck into some embers when camping, back when he would take us kids out before we drank coffee too.
Fuck keurig.
Thanks, that whole announcement read like (and naturally is) corporate propaganda.
I think you summarized the reasonable alternatives well.
I thought we already solved that? Like i got my keurig some metal mesh cups. And i just put the coffee in that. This screams more of a new method of controlling what goes into the machine. They are like the HP of tea kettles.
So instead of throwing away coffee pods, people will be throwing away coffee machines.
They look a bit like the coffee balls that Hofmann reviewed a while back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JICKZOdDtVc
A good drip coffee maker is so much better for the environment. Worst case, you throw out a bag and a paper filter, best case, only coffee grounds if you get the beans straight from a market.
