K-Rounds are virtually nothing but coffee

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/12988150

Keurig, the company that got us all hooked on single-serve coffee systems and has helped us churn through billions of plastic throwaway K-cups, just reinvented its single-serve system in what may be the most sustainable way: K-Rounds.

K-Rounds are plastic and aluminum-free, highly-compressed coffee ground pods held together by an ultra-thin layer of plant-based material (alginate). As one Keurig exec described it, “It’s just coffee in those pods.”

…

If successful, K-Rounds could have a measurable impact on the environment. According to one report, we create approximately half a billion metric tons of coffee capsule waste each year.

  • exothermic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    6 months ago

    “Sustainable”

    Coffee can, single piece of packaging for months on end.

    Vs.

    K-cups, paper, dyes, increased packaging volumes, increased energy in production, increased raw materials, increased trips to the store to purchase more, 6 month shelf life. Sustainable /s

    • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      Shit, you can get a little reusable basket for a Keurig and put regular coffee in it. They just made a less sustainable version of something that exists.

      Really all the machine does is heat and measure the water for you.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    6 months ago

    Do people really not know that single cup electric makers have been a thing since at least the eighties? Mine is one my dad bought in 85, a black and Decker one.

    One scoop of coffee in a washable filter (which, btw is still the original one, no issues), pour water, hit the switch, walk away. Makes a pleasant gurgle when finished.

    And it isn’t like there weren’t single cup options before that, they just weren’t necessarily electric. Shit, my grandfather would make single cups with a cloth tea bag and a percolator stuck into some embers when camping, back when he would take us kids out before we drank coffee too.

    Fuck keurig.

    • scrion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      Thanks, that whole announcement read like (and naturally is) corporate propaganda.

      I think you summarized the reasonable alternatives well.

  • WraithGear@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    6 months ago

    I thought we already solved that? Like i got my keurig some metal mesh cups. And i just put the coffee in that. This screams more of a new method of controlling what goes into the machine. They are like the HP of tea kettles.