K Cup Regret


John Sylvan, the inventor of Keurig’s hugely popular K Cup coffee pods, recently admitted he feels a sense of regret about ever inventing the cups.

A K Cup is really nothing more than a single serving of coffee contained within a small plastic cup. The plastic cup is designed to be fitted into a Keurig coffee maker, pierced by the closing lid, and presto! A steaming hot cup of coffee is made just as soon as the hot water from the Keurig can make its way through the little coffee pod.

Given America’s love of all things coffee, it is no surprise that the ease in which the K Cup allows a coffee drinker to make a cup of coffee, has pushed the K Cup into consumer-product stardom. What could possibly be bad about such a nifty invention? Well according to Sylvan, a lot.

CNN Money has summarized Sylvan’s sentiments by simply stating as follows.

“…K-Cups are bad for the environment — they are disposable and not recyclable.”

What makes K Cups non-recyclable, according to SFGate, is the K Cup’s three layer design. According to SFGate, there are three layers to the make-up of every K Cup and not every layer is able to be recycled.

Keurig K Cup
How a K Cup Works

This inability to be completely recycled has given rise to concern from individuals who feel the construction of the Cup is wasteful. It is likely that such concerns are only amplified when, according to the the Atlantic, there were enough K Cups sold in 2014 to wrap around the earth 10.5 times.

This potential environmental issue has caught the attention of such environmental groups as the Sierra Club who have recently published articles discussing the supposed dangers of the K Cup’s continued use.

In response to his growing sense of regret and the public’s growing anti K Cup sentiment (#KillTheKCup), Sylvan has tried to inform Keurig on how to better manufacture his original invention.

“I told them how to improve it, but they don’t want to listen, there’s a much better way of doing it.”

Despite Sylvan’s opinion in regard to Keurig’s refusal to improve on his design, Keurig has released plans to address the issue. In 2013, Keurig announced that by 2020, it planned to manufacture all of its K Cups so that 100 percent of the K Cup itself was recyclable.

In the mean time, as the original tri-layered K Cup remains on the shelves, one may feel free to ask oneself, should we kill the K Cup?

[Featured Image credit to Delicate, Body Image credit to Amazon]

Share this article: K Cup Regret
More from Inquisitr