Keurig 'K-Cups' becoming environmental problem by the billions..

If you own a Keurig coffee machine, you’re among 13 million other people. If you woke up and used a K-cup this morning, it was one of billions of K-cups that may end up in landfills.

Both Keurig and companies that manufacture the cups acknowledge that sustainability is a problem.

“We're working on upstream and downstream impacts of the system,” a representative from Keurig told Alabama Media Group.

Keurig pointed to a website dedicated to sustainability and their efforts to work towards environmentally friendly solutions in conjunction with Green Mountain Coffee. The sustainability goals listed on the website are still dated for fiscal 2013.

One of the goals was to reduce landfill waste by 5 percent. There’s no explanation for how they would obtain such a measurement, but they did say that worked on a life cycle assessment of the products. To guage how many K-Cups there are in landfills, just by 2012, Green Mountain had sold 11 billion of the plastic cups.

Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and numerous other companies have joined in the single-serve K-Cup business as well, further contributing to mass demand.

Two years after declaring that it would look for solutions, Keuig still isn’t sure how to tackle the issue.

“The challenge of protecting the freshness of roasted coffee while using environmentally friendly packaging is one that both Keurig and the coffee industry are committed to overcoming," a statement read.

"We are very sensitive about the waste created by the K-cup packs and are investigating alternative materials. Finding a solution for this is a priority for us, and one we hope to have before long,” their website also says.

K-cups are not recyclable, but a reusable cup has been invented. A solo cup can be found for under $15 and you can put any grounds in it you choose.

There’s also a way to recycle the used grounds that enriches soil instead of contributing to trash, through a company called Grounds to Grow On.

Or, you could just switch to a regular coffee pot that brews different amounts and select a reusable filter. It’s up to the consumer to balance convenience with environment.

If you've thought of creative ways to reuse K-Cups, comment below.

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Source: http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/03/k-cups_becoming_environemental.html