THE SCOURGE OF THE CUTE LITTLE K-CUP

By:  Lee Ann Rush

Those ubiquitous, multi-flavored individual coffee servings sold in plastic pods known as Keurig K-Cups might have been a clever and novel idea at first, but they are quickly becoming an environmental disaster.  In 2014, billions of plastic K-Cups were sold; enough to circle the earth more than 10 times!  As bad as that sounds, it gets worse: K-Cups are NOT recyclable!

John Sylvan, the inventor of what is now called the K-Cup, is regretting his creation more and more each day.  In a recent interview published in The Atlantic, Sylvan, who sold his company in 1997, had originally intended that the pods be used primarily in office settings where they could accommodate the varied tastes of a large number of people.   He never dreamed that, by 2013, one in three households would own a Keurig or Keurig-style coffee maker.  “I feel bad that I ever did it,” admits Sylvan, “I don’t have one.  They’re kind of expensive to use [and] it’s not like drip coffee is tough to make.”  True enough, and while it isn’t as though Sylvan is hurting for money, he has a far greater objection to the current K-Cup scourge clogging our landfills and fouling our waterways.  Although Keurig Green Mountain, maker of the K-Cup, has claimed in its sustainability report that the coffee pods will be fully recyclable by the year 2020, Sylvan, who now works in the solar power industry, has gone on record as stating that, the way the pods are currently designed, recyclability is impossible.  “No matter what they say about recycling, those things will never be recyclable.  The plastic is a specialized plastic made of four different layers,” that most recycling plants are not equipped to handle.  To make matters even worse, there is a foil lid attached to each pod that must be removed before recycling.  Be honest, have you ever taken the foil top off a K-Cup before throwing it away?  I didn’t think so.

Although Sylvan has approached Keurig Green Mountain about a method he has devised to make the K-Cups sustainable, the company has turned a deaf ear.  For that reason, he, along with many other environmentalists and concerned citizens, has taken up the message, “Kill the K-Cup before it kills our planet.”  As it appears that Keurig Green Mountain, like so many other companies, will only listen to public sentiment if it negatively affects their bottom line, consumers are being urged to spread the #KillTheKCup hashtag, and to sign the petition at Change.org demanding that Keurig Green Mountain start selling recyclable coffee pods now, not possibly five years from now after they’ve destroyed even more of the ecosystem.  Keurig users can also switch to recyclable pod brands such as those made by the San Francisco Coffee Company, or try the several brands of reusable pods that will work in Keurig’s coffee machines. Or, you do what I do and stick to using your Mr. Coffee.