Related: "K-Cup creator John Sylvan regrets inventing Keurig coffee pod system":<p>* <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-regrets-inventing-keurig-coffee-pod-system-1.2982660" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-r...</a><p>* <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keurig" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keurig</a><p>For single-serve coffee, hard to go wrong with the Clever Dripper, which doesn't take much technique (just put in water first <i>then</i> coffee grounds) and uses standard #4 filters:<p>* <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOdennxP24">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOdennxP24</a>
People always seem to forget Reduce Reuse Recycle.<p>Recycle is the last option for a reason, because it's the last and worst case scenario.<p>We need to use less coffee cups and if possible reuse them. That's the solution.
I misread that as "combustible" and had a very different reaction than the rest of you, I suspect.<p>Anyway.<p>A few years ago a good coffeeshop near me tried a new brand of some VERY compostable cups. They were so compostable, in fact, that they would often degrade to the point of failure BEFORE I FINISHED MY COFFEE.<p>Double- or triple-cupping would prevent this, but presumably that also undoes whatever other benefits were accruing, so they switched back.
I have read that composable and biodegradable items will not degrade when they are thrown into municipal waste. This is because the waste is sealed in massive containers and without oxygen they will not decompose. Is this still true?<p>I suppose it would reason that if they were indeed compost-able they could, but not in an anaerobic environment.
So the goal should be compostable cups that are actually composted. There might be some arguments against the cups if they are not composted, but if you don’t start with the compostable cups you will never reach the goal of compostable cups that are actually composted.
If we're talking emissions and coffee then another important aspect is the source / growing practices / distance travelled of the beans. Better labelling around these kind of aspects would better balance the current cafe decision matrix of blend / extraction type / roasting characteristics.