Keurig's New 'Recyclable' K-Cups Are Still Awful for the Environment

Keurig Green Mountain , the shaper of the commodious coffee bean political machine in all likelihood sputtering in your office at this very secondly , wants everyone to know that it isfinallymaking K - Cups that are reclaimable . In a recentannouncement , the troupe enounce it is on racecourse to meet its goal of create 100 % of its moldable coffee pods recyclable by 2020 . But the newest variety really wo n’t make K - Cups any less wasteful .

After twelvemonth of look intense literary criticism for its product ' disconfirming impact on the environment , the caller is launching all - young K - Cups later this year that are made out of polypropylene and can be recycled like other vulgar shaping feeding bottle and container , consort to areportbyThe New York Times . Although the young cups could help quash the billions that are air to landfill every year , the report notes the raw recyclable K - Cups are not compostable and not reusable , andcritics saythey will ultimately be just as uneconomical as they are now .

Look at it this agency : Keurig create enough K - Cups to circle the Earth multiple times every twelvemonth , and with the new version , Keurig will continue to make enough K - Cups to circle the Earth multiple times every year . The only difference is that they ’ll be recyclable . For its part , Keurig enjoin it ’s continuing to work on make up K - Cups more sustainable .

Dan Gentile/Thrillist

" When you look at the drift toward exclusive - serve generally , you’re able to either villainize it , or you’re able to fix it , " Monique Oxender , Keurig ’s principal sustainability officeholder , told theTimes . “ We ’re trying to cook it . ”

And while the new cup will berecyclable , that does n’t mean they ’ll end up beingrecycled . As theTimesexplains : " Consumers will have to remember to put it in the recycling bin , if they have one . They also should strip down off the atomic number 13 top – a mussy physical process that gets coffee grounds under fingernails . " Sort of bollocks up the convenience of using a K - Cup , right ?

in the end , the modification may result in fewer K - Cups polluting the satellite , but there will be just as manyreasonsto think using another brewing method .