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Aren't these things one of the most contaminant things you can have in the kitchen? Even the inventor regrets doing it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-

Aren't these things one of the most contaminant things you can have in the kitchen? Even the inventor regrets doing it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-regrets-inventing-keurig-coffee-pod-system-1.2982660 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-r... Or is this different?

ceejayoz 2y ago
Nespresso pods are readily recycled aluminium, rather than the plastic of K-Cups.
- NegativeLatency 2y ago
  How many places actually accept them though? Also nestle is a terrible company for the environment and human rights.
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    > How many places actually accept them though? The company itself has a recycling program; you can mail them and some stores accept them. > Also nestle is a terrible company for the environment and human rights. Agreed, but so's pretty much everything else we buy.
  - robrtsql 2y ago
    The current status, IIRC, is that recycling in New York accepts Nespresso pods, and in the rest of the US, Nespresso offers free pre-paid shipping bags which you can fill with used pods and drop off at UPS, who will then return them to Nespresso for recycling. They also accept pods at their store locations. Not sure what the deal is in other parts of the world, if Nespresso is sold there.
  - spzb 2y ago
    I use one of these https://www.dualit.com/products/ecopress-aluminium-capsule-recycler https://www.dualit.com/products/ecopress-aluminium-capsule-r... It separates the aluminium pod and the coffee grounds so you can recycle the former and compost the latter.
dbt00 2y ago
It’s not the identical product but it’s fairly similar. Nespresso accepts their used pods back for recycling, and they are made out of metal and not just plastic, but they are owned Nestle and who knows how well they actually recycle that shit.
- hocuspocus 2y ago
  They're serious about recycling, but many consumers are not. I'm in Switzerland where recycling Nespresso pods couldn't be easier, and we barely reach a 2/3 recycling rate. US and global rates are much lower. If Nestlé hadn't crippled their machines on purpose, I'd think third party plastic capsules might be a better option in Europe at least, since they end up in waste co-processing.
  - mrguyorama 2y ago
    >If Nestlé hadn't crippled their machines on purpose Nestle invented an entirely new way to brew coffee AGAIN just to extra lock down their pod system from independent competition. The built all this wankery about spinning the pods at like 30k rpm to "force the water through the coffee like an espresso machine" but it _doesn't_. As Mr Hoffman discussed, the foam it creates is just aerated coffee, which is substantially different than the foam you get from actually putting water through coffee at high pressure. All this to get a patent on a physical process so that competitors cannot drive the price of their pods down. And the coffee still tastes like shit. And the machine takes a long time. And it makes a stupid and annoying noise. The system is demonstrably worse than any other pod based system because it was more important to Nestle that they get their pod profit margins than you get acceptable coffee. Like seriously this should be a crime, not a civil infraction, a crime to artificially lock out competition like this.
    - hocuspocus 2y ago
      I haven't really seen those in the wild yet. On the other hand there are plenty of cheap original Nespresso machines pretty much everywhere in Switzerland. In some countries Nestlé was virtually giving them away around 2010~2015. Shortly after, some patents expired and third party brands started selling plastic capsules, and Nestlé had to fight back and make their machines work poorly with these! As far as I know all patents have expired now, and a few third party brands sell 100% compatible aluminium capsules.
kube-system 2y ago
> The first market was the office coffee service market," he said, adding he is "absolutely mystified" by his product's popularity in homes. After reading this, the invention made a lot more sense. K-cups seem to be a better choice for outside of the home where someone might want a single cup on demand with no prep or cleanup. Like waiting rooms, offices, hotels, etc.
wkat4242 2y ago
That's Keurig. We don't have this in Europe. We do have other plastic pod ones like Nescafe Dolce Gusto. The nespresso one is using aluminium pods.

ceejayoz 2y ago

Nespresso pods are readily recycled aluminium, rather than the plastic of K-Cups.

NegativeLatency 2y ago
How many places actually accept them though? Also nestle is a terrible company for the environment and human rights.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  > How many places actually accept them though? The company itself has a recycling program; you can mail them and some stores accept them. > Also nestle is a terrible company for the environment and human rights. Agreed, but so's pretty much everything else we buy.
- robrtsql 2y ago
  The current status, IIRC, is that recycling in New York accepts Nespresso pods, and in the rest of the US, Nespresso offers free pre-paid shipping bags which you can fill with used pods and drop off at UPS, who will then return them to Nespresso for recycling. They also accept pods at their store locations. Not sure what the deal is in other parts of the world, if Nespresso is sold there.
- spzb 2y ago
  I use one of these https://www.dualit.com/products/ecopress-aluminium-capsule-recycler https://www.dualit.com/products/ecopress-aluminium-capsule-r... It separates the aluminium pod and the coffee grounds so you can recycle the former and compost the latter.

dbt00 2y ago

It’s not the identical product but it’s fairly similar. Nespresso accepts their used pods back for recycling, and they are made out of metal and not just plastic, but they are owned Nestle and who knows how well they actually recycle that shit.

hocuspocus 2y ago
They're serious about recycling, but many consumers are not. I'm in Switzerland where recycling Nespresso pods couldn't be easier, and we barely reach a 2/3 recycling rate. US and global rates are much lower. If Nestlé hadn't crippled their machines on purpose, I'd think third party plastic capsules might be a better option in Europe at least, since they end up in waste co-processing.
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  >If Nestlé hadn't crippled their machines on purpose Nestle invented an entirely new way to brew coffee AGAIN just to extra lock down their pod system from independent competition. The built all this wankery about spinning the pods at like 30k rpm to "force the water through the coffee like an espresso machine" but it _doesn't_. As Mr Hoffman discussed, the foam it creates is just aerated coffee, which is substantially different than the foam you get from actually putting water through coffee at high pressure. All this to get a patent on a physical process so that competitors cannot drive the price of their pods down. And the coffee still tastes like shit. And the machine takes a long time. And it makes a stupid and annoying noise. The system is demonstrably worse than any other pod based system because it was more important to Nestle that they get their pod profit margins than you get acceptable coffee. Like seriously this should be a crime, not a civil infraction, a crime to artificially lock out competition like this.
  - hocuspocus 2y ago
    I haven't really seen those in the wild yet. On the other hand there are plenty of cheap original Nespresso machines pretty much everywhere in Switzerland. In some countries Nestlé was virtually giving them away around 2010~2015. Shortly after, some patents expired and third party brands started selling plastic capsules, and Nestlé had to fight back and make their machines work poorly with these! As far as I know all patents have expired now, and a few third party brands sell 100% compatible aluminium capsules.

kube-system 2y ago

> The first market was the office coffee service market," he said, adding he is "absolutely mystified" by his product's popularity in homes. After reading this, the invention made a lot more sense. K-cups seem to be a better choice for outside of the home where someone might want a single cup on demand with no prep or cleanup. Like waiting rooms, offices, hotels, etc.

wkat4242 2y ago

That's Keurig. We don't have this in Europe. We do have other plastic pod ones like Nescafe Dolce Gusto. The nespresso one is using aluminium pods.