While it seems like making a single cup of coffee would reduce waste, it actually dramatically increases waste due to the accumulation of all the discarded pucks.
A 2019 ScienceAlert article referenced a statistic that estimates that if 2014’s annual amount of used Keurig pucks were lined up, they would circle the Earth 10.5 times. It is hard to estimate how this number has increased because Keurig went private in 2016 and no longer releases how many pucks are sold annually. However, Statista reports that between 2014 and 2018 the percentage of U.S. consumers who owned a single cup coffee brewing system increased from 15% to 41%.
Most of the single use pucks end up in landfills because they are made of a plastic and aluminum mixture which requires specific recycling equipment and cannot be incinerated because they release poisonous chemicals into the air, water, and soil. Pucks are Yuck!
So for today settle for less single-use coffee pucks. By reducing the number of single-use coffee pucks used, the amount of non-recyclable waste going into landfills is directly reduced. You can also reduce the number of pucks in landfills by purchasing recyclable pucks and following the recycling process.
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