A German city has just become the first one in the world to ban single-use coffee pods including those of market leader Keurig. Every year enough of the little cups are tossed out to circle the world a dozen times, and because they are made of plastic and aluminum most recycling plants are unable to recycle them. Hamburg has banned the coffee pods from all government-operated buildings.
Jan Dube works at the Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy. He told the press over the weekend that the portion packs result in unnecessary use of resources and waste produced.
Dube pointed out the capsules are difficult to recycle. In addition, the 3-gram packaging only contains 6 grams of coffee, according to Science Alert.
About 13 percent of Germans daily drink a cup of Joe made from a single-cup brewer. In the United States one quarter of households have a pod machine.
Hamburg is taking various steps to become more eco-friendly and a green city. It is also responding to the spike in coffee pod devices during the last few years.
Sales of single-serve coffee are over 3x higher since in 2011 in Western Europe and the US. In addition, in 2013 the single-serving machine outsold drip-coffee machines in Western Europe for the first time ever.
Keurig is the top coffee pod manufacturer. In 2014 the company sold about 9.8 billion portion packs, and only 5 percent could be recycled. It has promised to produce a fully recyclable version of its K-cup system by 2020.
However, many experts argue that the units could never be recyclable. Keurig founder John Sylvan invented the K-cup. He told The Atlantic that the coffee pods will never be recyclable and that he sometimes regrets his invention.
Another issue is that many K-cup users believe that the system is bad for the environment. A recent poll showed that 10 percent of Britons have that opinion yet 22 percent of the respondents reported that they owned a pod machine.
Australian researchers John Rice and Nigel share that the coffee pods represent a bigger problem in modern society. They observed that many people claim they are "green" yet make their coffee using a system that is as sustainable as a Cold War-era nuclear power plant, according to The Conversation.
Here's how to recycle a coffee pod: