Seeing as today is National Coffee Day, I’m inspired to comment on a related issue. And it’s a pleasure to distract myself (and, hopefully, you) from national politics (which we’ve all been obsessed with). No, I’m not talking about made-up food holidays – I’ll save that for another time. Nope, I’m talking about coffee pods.
As Lina Lamont would say, I CAN'T STAN' IM.
Let’s face it, if you’re a coffee drinker, convenience is super important. When I need coffee, I’m usually sleepy, so anything to make it easy to get a cup of joe is great. But in the long run, coffee pods are kind of evil. Yeah, I said it.
Why? Waste. Every pod gets thrown away after it is used. It can’t be composted, it can’t get re-used, and even when it’s made of recyclable materials, it’s too small for most recycling facilities. That just seems wrong.
Don’t believe me? Read this.
This is a big deal. According to the National Coffee Association, it’s estimated that almost 30% of consumers used a pod-based machine in the last 24 hours. And according to the Washington Post, last year more than 10 billion pods were sold! That’s not a small number. What about the fact that many pods contain plastics that leach (small amounts of) dangerous chemicals into the cuppa?
Here at Mouth we cop to the fact that we’re a little partial to freshly ground coffee (many of us full-on coffee nerds purchase whole bean coffee – Donut’s Friend Blend is my choice) because it’s more satisfying, but we’re also keen on it because it’s a more environmentally respectful method. We carry beans from Brooklyn Roasting, whose coffee is sold in recyclable tin-steel cans. (Did you know steel is continuously recyclable?)
“But Craig,” I hear you saying, “What about your carbon footprint?”
I hear you. We acknowledge that like any online retailer we face difficulties when it comes to being conscientious about the environment and walk the walk. Our wrapping and cardboard boxes are recyclable. Our corrugated boxes are partially made from recycled content and we use soy ink for printing.
We try to be as respectful toward the environment as we can while at the same time trying to efficiently run a small growing company. Are there other things we can do? Yes. And we’re working on it. In the meantime, we just found out about these pod stats ourselves, so we thought we’d share.
- Craig