A short round-up of coffee news.
- Keurig is finally designing a more eco-friendly K-cup, Washington Post. I have written many times about K-Cups: the excess waste, when the company said they were recyclable but they really weren’t, as well as the high cost and better alternatives. This article announces the same old story: by 2020 K-Cups will be recyclable, they say this time by changing the plastic composition. The 2020 goal has been in place for many years. This article quotes the company as saying, “The consumer is going to brew it, peel and empty it, and pop the pod into the recycling bin in the same behavior they would do with a yogurt cup.” First, many people will NOT go to the trouble of peeling off the foil top and cleaning out the grounds. Second, the plastic will now be polyproplene (“#5”), a type of plastic which is still not accepted by many curbside services, especially if not in tub or bottle form. Sigh.
- Other single-serve pods used in these brewers also tout their sustainability. The Consumerist, in the article Ad Watchdog: These 100% Compostable’ Coffee Pods Don’t Go In Your Backyard Compost Pile, warns people to be careful of these kinds of claims.
- A Strong Case Against a Pesticide Does Not Faze E.P.A. Under Trump, New York Times. Chlorpyrifos is one of the common pesticides used on coffee. Buy organic. Everything.
- Colombian Coffee Growers Adapt to a Changing Climate, The Ecologist.