this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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[โ€“] Geek_King@lemmy.world 83 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I also second social media, but I need to make another suggestion it'd be Keurigs k-cups. So much plastic waste for the barest level of convenience.

[โ€“] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even the creator of the K-cup said he regretted creating it because of the environmental impact.

[โ€“] codenul@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Was that before or after going to the bank, laughing?

[โ€“] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actually, the inventor of the Keurig coffee pod system, John Sylvan, sold his ownership of the product for $50,000 in 1997. 7 years after founding the company and before single-serve coffee really took off.

[โ€“] codenul@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago
[โ€“] Carighan@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for beating me to mention this.

K-cups are really amazinlgy bad. And it's not like there aren't much better solutions available. Philips has those fully bio-degradable pads, a local store now sells a type of coffee maker that uses just the coffee powder in balls where the outer shell is compressed grounds that is cracked open to get to the powder inside.

But no, Keurig and their fucking oceans of plastic waste.

[โ€“] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

Nespresso has ones that are fully metal, and so can be shredded and separated by mass to get scrap aluminum and prime compost fodder. They accept them back by mail.

[โ€“] Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What the hell is a K-cup, it sounds like something you shove up your vaj

[โ€“] Geek_King@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a small plastic cup full of ground coffee, Kuerig machines use them. They generated a ton of plastic waste, since each k-cup was a single use.

[โ€“] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

There was great progress in compostable K-Cups from other vendors. And then Keurig did the DRM thing with the UV ink. So they literally made everything worse trying to keep their market reach.

I threw mine out and went back to a french press. Straight into compost, and the coffee tastes better.

Nah that's a diva cup

[โ€“] Pronell@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Keurigs are actually pretty convenient when you're only making one cup. The trick is to get one of the reusable filters and just use whatever coffee you like.

[โ€“] maquise@ttrpg.network 5 points 1 year ago

I love my Keurig, but I always use the reusable mesh cups.

[โ€“] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Yes, it's a waste, but the whole thing was blown way the hell out of proportion.

I hike, kayak, canoe, whatever, all over the place. Every plastic bottle I pick up contains, what, 5 times the plastic? I pick up a LOT. And nobody thinks twice or raises a fuss.

We use a Keurig, but either with plastic refill cups or paper bags my wife brings home from the hotel.

[โ€“] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works -4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

K-cups are recyclable. Why are you people not putting them in the recycling.

[โ€“] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot of stuff marked as recyclable is technically recyclable but cost prohibitive to do so. I don't know what type of plastic these cups are, but when they claim recyclable, it should specify percent actually being recycled.

I'm liking aldi at the moment. They list all the separate parts of packaging for me and how it can be disposed. I hope its just a step to moving more to biodegradable rather than recyclable.

[โ€“] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're 100% recyclable. It's also very cheap.

[โ€“] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

Again, possible to recycle does not mean they are actually recycled or economic to recycle. Many things are possible to recycle. Most are not. If their form factor or material makes them costly to recycle, they wont be. You say they are cheap. What cost to make new? What cost to collect, sort and recycle?

100% biodegradable would be better. With no plastic.

[โ€“] AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be used in most recycling programs you would need to fully remove the foil lid, and rinse out every k-cup before depositing them in recycling.

...okay. And? That's like 2 seconds of work.

[โ€“] DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Strong dissagree. I am barely functional pre-caffeine in the early morning. A Keurig is about as much mental energy as I can muster to operate. It is a godsend to me on day I work early.

[โ€“] Carighan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I think the problem is not in pod-based single-serving coffee machines. Those are common, and well-loved for a reason.

But there are easily available alternatives that do the exact same thing without requiring so much plastic, namely Senseo coffee pads (they're grounds in coffee filter paper) or CoffeeB and its compressed coffee grounds balls (so it's all just coffee ground, both the coffee and the pod). Probably a fair few more I don't know about personally.

Possibly even Nestle with their Nescafe pods. They're aluminium but some countries achieve effectively 100% recycling on that, then the only issue is the filter membrane they place inside and I don't know whether that is easily separated during recycling or not.