In an astonishing yet effective move to reduce waste, Hamburg, a city of Germany has banned the use of single-use coffee pods in the state-run buildings.
According to the estimation of the experts, the non-recyclable coffee pods used globally in a single year would circle the Earth more than 12 times.
Notably, environmental activists around the world have campaigned against the use of popular coffee machines and K-Cups.
John Sylvan, who invented the Keurig system, has mentioned that he himself regrets the invention of such a wasteful product, according to reports from The Daily Meal.
"No matter what they say about recycling, those things will never be recyclable," Sylvan once told The Atlantic. "The plastic is a specialized plastic made of four different layers. It's like a cigarette for coffee, a single-serve delivery mechanism for an addictive substance. I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it."
In Germany, an estimated 13 percent of citizens use a single-pod brewing system every single day, a habit that has been recognized as having a negative environmental impact, reported The Daily Meal.
"These portion packs cause unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation, and often contain polluting aluminum, a spokesperson for Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy said in a report on sustainable development.
"The capsules can't be recycled easily because they are often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminum. It's six grams of coffee in three grams of packaging. We in Hamburg thought that these shouldn't be bought with taxpayers' money", he added.
"They've been very disruptive to coffee and the way people drink coffee," Ross Colbert, an analyst at Rabobank says. "It allows a consumer to stock their pantry with enough variety to satisfy a family or social gathering, and always have something new to try. Some people get bored drinking the same coffee day after day."
