Single-serving coffee pods like Keurig's K-Cups are having a moment. Nearly one in five adults makes a single-cup-brewed coffee every day, and the industry is now worth several billion dollars. The industry's popularity shouldn't come as a surprise, since coffee pods are simple to make and easy to clean. But, as Mother Jones reports, the cost of convenience might not outweigh the toll the cups are taking on the environment.
The magazine writes that since each pod is individualized and easy to trash, "you must also exponentially increase the packaging — packaging that ultimately ends up in landfills." And the pieces "aren't that easy to recycle either," it adds.
Mother Jones estimated that the 8.3 billion K-Cups produced by Green Mountain are enough to wrap around the equator 10.5 times — and that's just in 2013. More alarmingly, since only five percent of the cups are recyclable, the rest of the pieces end up in landfills. Read the rest of the story at Mother Jones.