Fair Trade and K-Cup

by Emelia
(usa)

QUESTION:

So I stumbled upon your article about the K-Cups, and was surprised with myself how it never really occurred to me how un-eco-friendly they really were. However, after clicking on the link to your filter, there is a suggestion of purchasing Keurig green mountain brand k-cup press. I already have this one. So I'm wondering: are green mountain k-cups more eco-friendly? I was planning on purchasing fair trade coffee from them anyway.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you so much.

ANSWER:

Emelia, hi

Essentially, you're right. K-Cups are not environmentally friendly at all. As far as I know, there is no way to recycle the used K-Cups. And it doesn't matter whether the K-Cup comes from Green Mountain Coffee or anyone else...they are all the same.

This is a real shame, because Green Mountain Coffee offers an excellent range of fair trade coffees.

Here's how I work around this. I purchased a reusable "My K-Cup" filter for use in Keurig Brewers.

You simply grind your favorite coffee, fill the “My K-Cup”, and use it in the brewer.

It’s not quite as convenient as using regular K-cups, as you have to clean and refill the filter each time.

But by using the filter, you avoid using and then throwing away K-Cups every day.

Plus you can use any kind of coffee you want in the filter, including Fair Trade coffees.

Plus, and this is what I do, you can collect the used coffee grinds and add them to your compost.

You can get a "My K-Cup" for Keurig Brewers here...