This City Banned K-Cups—Is Your Town Next?

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/02/19/city-banned-k-cups?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2016-02-19-ST

They’re nonrecyclable and nonbiodegradable, and the amount of them buried in landfills could circle the globe an estimated 12 times. Now Germany’s second-largest city appears to have aligned itself with the kill-the-K-Cup movement.

Thanks to sweeping green-purchasing regulations that went into effect in January, workers and visitors at state-run buildings in Hamburg will no longer have access to single-use coffee pods. According to the 150-page Guide to Sustainable Procurement, government offices are now barred from buying “certain polluting products or product components.” Bottled water and plastic cutlery are off the table as well, but the java capsules were specifically called out as problematic.

“These portion packs cause unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation, and often contain polluting aluminum,” wrote the guide’s authors.

The tiny containers are promoted by manufacturers and celebrities—such as George Clooney, who hawks Nespresso—for their convenience. But they “can’t be recycled easily because they are often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminium,” Jan Dube, a spokesperson for the Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy, explained to BBC News on Friday. Germany’s recycling plants are similar to others around the world in that they don’t come with equipment that can separate a foil lid from the capsule’s plastic bottom.

[KT2000]

1. Good!

Even the inventor said they were a bad idea. I do not get the appeal. They do not make a full cup of coffee, they generate plastic garbage and they cost a fortune.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. In offices and other places, where it's a pain to get someone to clean and refill the pot...

and decide on what kind of coffee to get, they are a godsend.

At home, it's not that much of a convenience.

[Duppers]

9. Totally agree.

I see someone or some business using them and think "stupid person."

[MADem]

2. Why don't they sell those stupid machines with a re-usable, re-fillable insert?

Fill the cup with coffee grounds and stick it in. Empty it out, refill it, use it again.

[global1]

3. They Do.....nt

[MADem]

6. Problem solved! Now all that needs happen is to educate the public!

I use a Melitta cone I've had for thirty or more years, and a paper filter.

I boil water on the stove or use an electric kettle, depending on where I am. It's not fancy but it gets the job done. Way cheaper than one of those crazy-expensive machines.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. I have one that takes K-Cups and has a mesh insert for real coffee...

Hamilton Beach-- only cost me 30 bucks. (Still too much, I admit, when you can a 6 cup pot for 12 bucks)

OK for when I want one cup on the way out the door.

Branded K-cups tend to be 50-75 cents each cup around here, in the small dozen packs. Brand-X in the 80 cup box brings it down to 30-35 cents each for lousy coffee. Still too much, I admit, but when I want just a cup of decaf at night, it does fit the bill.

When the big box is done, I'll probably retire the gadget.

[MADem]

7. Nothing like a Melitta cone and filter!

You can boil your water on the stove or in the microwave or in an electric kettle. Pour the coffee in the cone, the water over the coffee, and boom--you're good to go!

[TreasonousBastard]

8. I have one of those, too...

and use it occasionally. You find out how lazy you really are when the extra steps of boiling and pouring seem like drudgery.

FWIW, I also have 12 cup and 6 cup drip machines, a large and a small press, and large and small percolators.

I do not have an espresso machine. Got one as a gift once, but it was too much of a PITA. Had a Sicilian uncle who made the best espresso with just a pot on the stove.

[MADem]

10. I have one of those pots on the stove, too!! It looks like this....

I don't always make the expresso, though--it's that or the melitta!

[Person 2713]

11. This wonderful news! Terrible waste heated plastic all bad