Honestly, neither is spelling cool with a K, but I digress. In case you’re not familiar, a K Cup is a single use coffee pod typically associated with the Keurig brand coffee machine. Keurig home use coffee makers hit the scene in 2004 and took off like wildfire. According to a survey by the National Coffee Association, in 2018 some 41% of respondents indicated that they have a single-cup brewing system in their home up from 7% in 2011. The convenience of the single use pod certainly has its appeal, making exactly the amount of coffee needed for one cup, without any measuring grinding or or clean up required. The environmental impact however is alarming.
Supposedly, the current number of K Cups in landfills could wrap around the earth 10 times. Keurig has responded to customer concerns by vowing to make all K Cups recyclable by 2020 however many recyclers still don’t accept K Cups. There are some alternatives to the traditional plastic K Cups, these include the refillable K Cup and the compostable K Cup. I’m going to made confession here that in my household we have a Keurig. We use both of these alternatives, but honestly, I’m not sure what the point of the refillable pod is. If I’m going to buy regular coffee and go to the trouble of filling a pod for a single cup, I may as well use a regular coffee maker and make a full pot. So, it’s the compostable K Cup for us. Pictured below is an O Organics (Safeway store brand) compostable option. This particular product costs about $9.00 for ten pods, so $.90 per cup which is comparatively pretty expensive to buying a pound of regular ground coffee.
So, bringing this K Cup topic around to travel and hotels, which is the focus of this blog, I’m noticing more and more hotels are using Keurig or generic brand single use pod coffee makers in their rooms. As a hotelier, I can certainly see the appeal, it’s easy to stock pods and the coffee machines require virtually no cleaning between guest but imagine the number of K Cups generated by a single hotel over a year. Now, a conscientious hotel might buy a recyclable or compostable K Cup, but knowing where hotels like to cut costs I don’t see this being the case. I can only imagine the move to the pod machine is motivated by a desire to provide guests with an appealing amenity. But the truth is there is a better, cheaper option for hotels. Coffee filter packs are widely available, clean, environmentally friendly, single or two cup use, and a fraction of the cost.
Next time your traveling maybe you will pay attention to what kind of coffee maker is in your hotel room. If you’re a hotelier I suggest you do your research before making a purchasing decision with lasting environmental and financial consequences.
What did you think of this blog? Leave your comments about K Cups below.
Sabrina Siino's Sustainable Travel Blog 