Every day we come in to the office and grab our morning coffee, tea or hot chocolate to begin our workday. For many offices, and some households too, K-cups are used in a Keurig (subsidiary of Green Mountain) brewing machine. This NY Times article notes Green Mountain’s K-Cups come in 300 varieties of coffee, tea and hot chocolate, and a new line of blends made to be brewed over ice. With this many options to choose from, there’s no wonder 80% of Green Mountain’s sales came from these single-use pods and brewing system last year!

The predicament for Green Mountain is just this; these nonrecyclable, nonbiodegradable, plastic and tinfoil pods that are made to be disposable. They have begun to research possible greener packaging. Some of which include biodegradable packaging, programs to recycle the pods or making the coffee filters themselves reusable. Michael Dupee, Green Mountain’s vice president for corporate social responsibility, said many consumers had started brewing coffee in reusable metal-mesh filters for the Keurig machines, which accept ground coffee. Green Mountain also has a prototype paper K-cup filled with Celestial Seasonings tea that was to be tested this summer. Furthermore, they are already working with International Paper to develop the Ecotainer (a hot-beverage cup with a plant-based, compostable lining).

I do think about just how many K-cups our office goes through per day let alone the many other households and companies out there that also brew on a daily basis. Props to Green Mountain on their road to becoming a Greener Mountain! Check out the rest of this article to read about what else they are doing and what some of the other coffee companies are doing to combat the waste issue.
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Tina Lamanna

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  1. I am THRILLED to hear this! We have one of these machines in my office and I struggle with how wasteful it is. While it is a great day, it will be an even better one when the environmentally-friendly solution is part of the initial design...not a correction made after the fact!

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