Does using single cup coffee makers make sense?

Jun 05, 2008

K-cups created trash!
by: Bonnie Yelverton

In my own blog at http://sustainablerays.blogspot.com/search/label/K-cups I wrote about how I can't see how you can combine organic and fair trade coffee with the concept of throw-away plastic K-cups.

For the first, the plastic is not bio-degradable, so the K-cups will be sitting around in landfills for a long time to come (if they haven't washed out to the bigh plastic island in the sea instead.)

For the second, the hot water that is being pressed through the coffee is also coming in contact with a plastic. We hear more and more about plastic ingredients that wander into food, and most of them are the sort that imitate hormones.

I can see using pods out of paper, but don't get the ones that are packaged in foil, which isn't any better, waste - wise, although probably a little better for your health. Somewhere here I read a suggestion that you get the single personal K-cup and use it will loose coffee. (although of course you are using precious water to wash the cup - but I do that on my Krupps espresso machine anyway.

I find it really disgusting that Green Mountain Coffee, from whom I have bought considerable quantities of organic and sustainable coffee, has gone over to the enemy. I will not be buying from them any more, even though I liked the idea of supporting the Heifer project by drinking their coffee.

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Jun 05, 2008
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Submitted by: Bonnie Yelverton

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In my own blog at http://sustainablerays.blogspot.com/search/label/K-cups I wrote about how I can't see how you can combine organic and fair trade coffee with the concept of throw-away plastic K-cups. For the first, the plastic is not bio-degradable, so the K-cups will be sitting around in landfills for a long time to come (if they haven't washed out to the bigh plastic island in the sea instead.) For the second, the hot water that is being pressed through the coffee is also coming in contact with a plastic. We hear more and more about plastic ingredients that wander into food, and most of them are the sort that imitate hormones. I can see using pods out of paper, but don't get the ones that are packaged in foil, which isn't any better, waste - wise, although probably a little better for your health. Somewhere here I read a suggestion that you get the single personal K-cup and use it will loose coffee. (although of course you are using precious water to wash the cup - but I do that on my Krupps espresso machine anyway. I find it really disgusting that Green Mountain Coffee, from whom I have bought considerable quantities of organic and sustainable coffee, has gone over to the enemy. I will not be buying from them any more, even though I liked the idea of supporting the Heifer project by drinking their coffee.

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Does using single cup coffee makers make sense?

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Does using single cup coffee makers make sense?