John Sylvan, Keurig co-founder and creator of the most famous K-Cup pods, which are single-serve coffee containers regrets in ever creating them.
He said that the coffee pods will never be recyclable despite the press releases of coffee machine makers that they can make them recyclable. It is sad to know that our favorite and the simplest coffee maker poses a danger to the environment. Because of Sylvan's deep regrets, the irony is that he no longer uses the plastic pods himself and also confessed that should have never created them in the first place. He sold his share of the company in 1997 for $50,000 after inventing it in the early 90s.
Sylvan was quoted in saying, "No matter what they say about recycling, those things will never be recyclable. The plastic is a specialized plastic made of four different layers."
The K-Cups known as plastic No. 7 are only recyclable in some cities of Canada are not yet available in the U.S. The plastic ensures that coffee is intact and free from external elements while being brewed.
One in every three American household owns a coffee brewing system. Because of the simplistic way of how the Keurig's original K-Cup, this way of life for the Americans has been popular craze.
Keurig is currently thought to be one of the most popular at-home brewing systems in America. Last year the company sold 9.8 billion Keurig-brewed portion packs and earned $4.7billion. The design is simple - a small plastic capsule containing ground beans that can be put into a machine to produce a cup of coffee at the touch of a button. This works well for every busy American. Despite the skyrocketing profits,Keurig did nothing to the packaging to make the pods recyclable.
Environment groups and advocates have also said their piece about this concern as it takes 500-plus years for a single plastic coffee pod to degrade in the environment and 150-200 years for an aluminum capsule. Coffee making manufacturers explicitly defend their product that they are doing something to counter the environmental effects of the coffee pods.
Well, regrets can be given meaning only if Keurig does something about it.
