German town bans single-use coffee pods

Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 6:59 PM - Single-use coffee pods have become a controversial topic, as far as the environment is concerned.

The colourful pods help bring joy to millions of caffeine lovers daily, but with a heavy environmental toll.

One of the leaders in single-use coffee pods, Keurig Green Mountain for example, sells billions of plastic K-cups each year, with Canadians spending $95 million in 2014 on single serve coffee products. 

In 2013, 8.3 billion K-cups were produced.

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In landfills the pods can degrade to form microplastics, which can migrate into waterways and pose a threat to wildlife.

While all the components used to create the pods are recyclable individually, the product cannot be recycled when combined into a single unit.

They can take up to 50 years or more to degrade in a landfill, and with more and more of them entering the waste system daily, the environmental impact is mounting.

GERMAN TOWN BANS COFFEE PODS

Earlier this month it was reported the German city of Hamburg has become the first in the world to ban the use of the pods from all government-run buildings.

"These portion packs cause unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation, and often contain polluting aluminium," Jan Dube from the Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy told reporters over the weekend.

"The capsules can't be recycled easily because they are often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminium. It’s 6 grams of coffee in 3 grams of packaging. We in Hamburg thought that these shouldn’t be bought with taxpayers' money."

The new law only applies to staff in government-owned buildings. Coffee pods are still legal everywhere else.

INVENTOR REGRETS HIS CREATION

In March 2015, John Sylvan, the creator of the Keuring "K-Cup" pod said he regretted his invention, saying when he developed the product he thought it would mainly be used in offices -- but that hasn't been the case. 

"I don't know why people have them in their house," Sylvan told the CBC, adding that consumers should consider purchasing eco-friendly alternatives.

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But the popularity of the product negated his intention, quickly morphing into a massive generator of plastic waste.

Sylvan worked at Keurig during the 1990s. He thought he Keurig would be a benefit to office dwellers, enabling them to grab a cafe-quality drink without having to venture outside.

"That would make it environmentally neutral, because you wouldn't have those Starbucks cups [everywhere]," Sylvan told the CBC.

Keurig Green says it plans to have its cups fully recyclable by 2020, but Sylvan tells the CBC he's skeptical of the plan.

Source: Scientific American