Green Ways to Use K-Cups

Keurig brewers users are often concerned about the environment and what their coffee drinking habits to do the environment. If you are one of the many Keurig brewer owners, how do you do your part for the environment? How do you recycle your K-Cups? If you're looking for greener ways to use Keurig K-Cups, read on to find out more. And remember to share your environmentally friendly K-Cups methods below.

Currently K-Cups are created with three layers. The outermost layer, an impermeable layer, keeps out the air, moisture and light so that K-Cups always deliver a fresh taste! Have you ever seen inside the K-Cup? Check out video below to find out more about the structure of a Keurig K-Cup. Understand how the different K-Cups components are a key part of keeping Keurig coffee fresh.

Keurig and its parent company Green Mountain Coffee are currently working to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of their beloved Keurig brewers—not only by reducing the wasteful packaging of Keurig K-Cups, but also by trying to reduce its overall footprint by researching, what they are calling, the lifecycle of Keurig coffee. In trying to understand the waste that Keurig K-Cups produce, Keurig and Green Mountain Coffee are thoroughly researching every step of the Keurig coffee creation process from tree to K-Cup. Throughout the coffee preparation process, the packaging process and the consumption process, Keurig is committed to reducing the amount of waste that results as a by-product. This way, Keurig will discover where they can cut down on Keurig K-Cup waste.

Currently you can recycle two-thirds of the Keurig K-Cup! The foil layer can be pulled off and thrown in with your aluminum cans, while the paper filter can be extracted and placed in your newspaper bin. But be sure to clean off any debris, ensuring that you keep down the cost of recycling and making jobs at the recycling plant streamlined.

To use Keurig brewers in an environmentally friendly way, you could always go another route! Luckily Keurig brewers created a My K-Cup so that Keurig lovers could enjoy convenient and efficient coffee without harming the environment. The same clean, quick coffee is available without all the recycling and waste! All the coffees that Keurig lovers know and love also come in non K-Cups form. The original coffee bean can be purchased in a bag. And the coffee can be ground and placed in a handy My K-Cup. My K-Cups a fine mesh filter inserts that work seamlessly with your favorite Keurig brewer. You can simply grind your coffee for the freshest handy and place in a My K-Cup. By grinding your coffee favored Keurig coffee and by using a handy My K-Cup, you can have more control over the taste of your coffee. The filter mesh is so fine that Keurig lovers are capable of experimenting with grind size. By trying out different grind sizes, Keurig brewers owners have the added bonus of changing the taste of their coffee.

One of the best ways to make the most of your K-Cup waste, is to reuse the remaining plastic pod. While two thirds of Keurig K-Cups are recyclable, the plastic portion of Keurig K-Cups are currently not recyclable. The remaining plastic K-Cup is the perfect size for arts and crafts around the home or at school. Some Keurig users donate their amassed K-Cups to local schools and nurseries, allowing kids to create 3-D crafts during playtime. Other Keurig users create projects at home to fully reintegrate the K-Cup plastic pods into a second life. Keurig users have used the plastic pods in the garden. Keurig K-Cups can be great for creating small seedlings, which are then later transferred into larger pots. Keurig users have also used Keurig K-Cups for arts and crafts at home. Find some down time with the kids or in the shed and make build something fun with the Keurig K-Cups. Or, Keurig K-Cups could be reused in a more conventional way. Simply extract the paper filter from the used K-Cup, refill the K-Cup with mini-filter (like a cutout of a normal paper coffee filter), fill the K-Cup with fresh coffee grinds of your choice, and simply brew your coffee all over again!

As you find greener ways to use your Keurig K-Cups, Keurig company is brewing up some environmentally friendly futures for Keurig K-Cups as well! Keurig and Green Mountain Coffee have started in 2010 a research project dedicated to creating a recyclable K-Cup. At the moment, the plastic is essential for keeping the coffee inside completely fresh and dry. The plastic is also designed to withstand the high pressure and extremely hot temperatures that are incorporated into the brewing process. The structural makeup of the K-Cup's plastic pod also needs to be sturdy enough to hold that coffee in place, but it also must be malleable enough to allow the tubes to puncture the K-Cup to create and extract the coffee. Any new Keurig K-Cup must be able to tick all the above boxes to ensure that Keurig coffee is fresh and convenient.

As Keurig maintains the integrity of fresh Keurig coffees, the research group is looking for innovative ways to not only make the Keurig K-Cup plastic recyclable, but they are also looking into ways to make the entire Keurig process integrate carbon neutral process, and incorporate renewable, biodegradable, compostable and petroleum-free materials.

But while Keurig researches the a new future for Keurig K-Cups, how do you use Keurig K-Cups in an environmentally friendly way?