6 ms·

K-cups are recyclable, it's just that no one does it because it's a pain in the ass to do at scale. You have to awkwardly peel back the top foil, dump the groun

by koboll 8y ago

K-cups are recyclable, it's just that no one does it because it's a pain in the ass to do at scale. You have to awkwardly peel back the top foil, dump the grounds, and then recycle the cup. Who at the office wants to sit there and do that for 20 cups in a row whenever the cup catcher fills up? What we need is some sort of cup recycler hardware that takes the work out of the annoying part. Put the used cup upside down, and a device scrapes the lid off and vaccuums the grounds into a compost holder, then you chuck the plastic into the recycle bin. That would instantly resolve the k-cup waste situation at my office.

cjsawyer 8y ago
It seems much easier to use a machine which doesn’t need pods and just has a hopper of beans
dragontamer 8y ago
> K-cups are recyclable, it's just that no one does it because it's a pain in the ass to do at scale. You have to awkwardly peel back the top foil, dump the grounds, and then recycle the cup. Who at the office wants to sit there and do that for 20 cups in a row whenever the cup catcher fills up? I do believe this is a myth. K-Cups plastic falls into plastic-resin code #7: "Other plastic". Which means its the hardest kind of plastic to recycle. IIRC, #1 Plastic (PETE) is easiest to recycle, but sucks at high temperatures. #5 Plastic (PP aka Polypropylene) is also easy to recycle, but I'm not sure if it'd stand boiling-point of water. Most recycling plants IIRC will throw away Resin code #6 or #7, due to their difficulty to recycle. Some plants can recycle #6 or #7, but its not something you can count on.
- undersuit 8y ago
  OK, but the other parts in the K-cup also need to be thrown away too because of this part?
  - dragontamer 8y ago
    Depends on the plant. I'm no recycling expert, but you have to remember that recycling plants are a combination of computer and human labor. Computers handle a lot of stuff easily: metals can be easily separated with magnets. Light plastics are separated with blowers, and some plastics can be detected with high-tech infrared / UV scanners. So when I say "easy to recycle", I'm talking about Aluminum (non-magnetic but metal, so easy to sort automatically) or plastic bags (air-blowers catch these). Everything else is dug around by hand by humans. If the humans can't figure it out, they throw it away immediately. Depending on the location, sometimes even Pizza boxes are thrown into the landfill by humans. Pizza Box is one of those things that's highly localized. You can't put a Pizza Box into a paper-recycling plant: the oils contaminate the mix. But you can shred a Pizza Box into a compost bin. IIRC, some areas only have paper-plants (so Pizza Boxes are thrown away there). So you gotta check with your local laws, regulations, and local plants to know for sure. EDIT: It seems like some areas can't handle plastic bags. It really depends. --------- For something like a K-Cup: it contains so little coffee that I find it unlikely that its worth the human's time to scoop out the coffee grounds. Its probably easier for the humans to throw a K-Cup away rather than manually labor in the recycling mix.
    - cannonedhamster 8y ago
      If you have a Walmart nearby, there's a good chance you've got a place to recycle plastic bags. They generate a ton of them and as part of their greenwashing they usually have recycling stations available for the plastic bags. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2018/05/06/how-can-walmart-accept-plastic-bags-recycling-when-recycling-centers-wont/573097002/ https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2018/05/...
donarb 8y ago
As the article mentions they are not currently recyclable, the plastic cup is made up of 4 layers of different kinds of plastic bonded together.
jkchu 8y ago
In the article they mentions that they combine 5 different layers of plastic to allow the k-cups to keep the coffee inside fresh. I believe this makes the plastic non-recyclable
- koboll 8y ago
  The article is from 2015. The plastic for certain cups (see: https://www.keurig.com/recyclable https://www.keurig.com/recyclable ) is recyclable as of earlier this year, and all k-cups are switching to recyclable plastic within the next year.

by koboll 8y ago

cjsawyer 8y ago

It seems much easier to use a machine which doesn’t need pods and just has a hopper of beans

dragontamer 8y ago

> K-cups are recyclable, it's just that no one does it because it's a pain in the ass to do at scale. You have to awkwardly peel back the top foil, dump the grounds, and then recycle the cup. Who at the office wants to sit there and do that for 20 cups in a row whenever the cup catcher fills up? I do believe this is a myth. K-Cups plastic falls into plastic-resin code #7: "Other plastic". Which means its the hardest kind of plastic to recycle. IIRC, #1 Plastic (PETE) is easiest to recycle, but sucks at high temperatures. #5 Plastic (PP aka Polypropylene) is also easy to recycle, but I'm not sure if it'd stand boiling-point of water. Most recycling plants IIRC will throw away Resin code #6 or #7, due to their difficulty to recycle. Some plants can recycle #6 or #7, but its not something you can count on.

undersuit 8y ago
OK, but the other parts in the K-cup also need to be thrown away too because of this part?
- dragontamer 8y ago
  Depends on the plant. I'm no recycling expert, but you have to remember that recycling plants are a combination of computer and human labor. Computers handle a lot of stuff easily: metals can be easily separated with magnets. Light plastics are separated with blowers, and some plastics can be detected with high-tech infrared / UV scanners. So when I say "easy to recycle", I'm talking about Aluminum (non-magnetic but metal, so easy to sort automatically) or plastic bags (air-blowers catch these). Everything else is dug around by hand by humans. If the humans can't figure it out, they throw it away immediately. Depending on the location, sometimes even Pizza boxes are thrown into the landfill by humans. Pizza Box is one of those things that's highly localized. You can't put a Pizza Box into a paper-recycling plant: the oils contaminate the mix. But you can shred a Pizza Box into a compost bin. IIRC, some areas only have paper-plants (so Pizza Boxes are thrown away there). So you gotta check with your local laws, regulations, and local plants to know for sure. EDIT: It seems like some areas can't handle plastic bags. It really depends. --------- For something like a K-Cup: it contains so little coffee that I find it unlikely that its worth the human's time to scoop out the coffee grounds. Its probably easier for the humans to throw a K-Cup away rather than manually labor in the recycling mix.
  - cannonedhamster 8y ago
    If you have a Walmart nearby, there's a good chance you've got a place to recycle plastic bags. They generate a ton of them and as part of their greenwashing they usually have recycling stations available for the plastic bags. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2018/05/06/how-can-walmart-accept-plastic-bags-recycling-when-recycling-centers-wont/573097002/ https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2018/05/...

donarb 8y ago

As the article mentions they are not currently recyclable, the plastic cup is made up of 4 layers of different kinds of plastic bonded together.

jkchu 8y ago

In the article they mentions that they combine 5 different layers of plastic to allow the k-cups to keep the coffee inside fresh. I believe this makes the plastic non-recyclable

koboll 8y ago
The article is from 2015. The plastic for certain cups (see: https://www.keurig.com/recyclable https://www.keurig.com/recyclable ) is recyclable as of earlier this year, and all k-cups are switching to recyclable plastic within the next year.