Dear Keurig, You are Done!

I got an email from a concerned consumer after seeing my presentation on ridding the oceans of plastic.  In the email, I was informed that she was very upset after seeing my talk.  Every time she went to consume anything, she would think twice.  While making coffee one morning, she noticed that her cute Christmas present, a Keurig, was not so cute anymore.  She shared with me the following email that she sent to Keurig:

“While we really like our Keurig, and use it daily because of the attachment that allows us to use our own ground coffee.  The single cups are convenient, albeit pricey, BUT, our main concern with your product is the fact that it is not recyclable!!  My husband is a science teacher, so if we do use a single serving, we compost the grounds and the students use the empty cup with the hole in the bottom to start seedlings in the greenhouse.  However, there comes a time when the plastic cup must must be discarded in the trash because it is non-recyclable nor biodegradable. 
PLEASE address this issue.  We will then be able to enjoy the single cup serving option with good conscience and would be willing to pay a few pennies more per cup for that assurance.  I refer you to a utube video: the lifecycle of a plastic soda bottle; and further, several videos on “plastic island”.  I encourage you to become aware of this issue – your consumers are!”

This is another example of:
- corporate benefit
- consumer convenience
- environmental harm

Just because something fits nicely into a neat little package and saves you 3 minutes out of your day, does not justify closing our eyes to the harm we are causing by thinking short term.  Keurig is a fun novelty but is it worth the overall cost?

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