Death to the K Cup!!

We all saw this coming...and by 'we' I mean us trash-junkies..pun intentional...

K cups highlight an ever growing problem in our modern day world (largely in America) that the convenience of single use products is quickly infiltrating our daily life. For all the "good" that comes from K cups (less stale coffee, I guess?) there's a whole lotta bad...

Don't know what I'm talking about?  Grab your reusable coffee mug, sit back and watch this short video:

Like, whoa. Here's a few more numbers from a Mother Jones article,

 "Green Mountain only makes 5 percent of its current cups out of recyclable plastic. The rest of them are made up of a #7 composite plastic, which is non recyclable in most places. And for the small few that are recyclable, the aluminum lid must be separated from the cup, which also must be emptied of its wet ground, for the materials to make it through the recycling process."  

In a society that has a hard enough time even getting the plastic bottle into the recycling can when it's right next to the garbage can..that's a lot to ask for. Our addiction to single use items is going to be a tough one to end. Even for me! It's hard to steer clear of the single use items that are ever increasingly more available. Luckily, as a tea drinker, my caffeinated single serve options are compostable, but I still fall pray to other sirens of single use I'm looking at you Q-tips! 

So what's a conscientious consumer to do? I'm all about individual impact, so take notice! Encourage your office to invest in some reusable pod cups, take note of what single use items you're addicted to and think of how you can either reuse the item (safely) or a reusable alternative. The answer is out there people!  

Now that you're feeling guilty for your love affair with the office Keurig..here are a few more things to ease your conscious and give yourself a gold star:

Join the #KilltheKCup movement. 

Go on and splurge on some reusable, single serve coffee pods (available in places like CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond, and of course the interwebs)

Sign the petition to the CEO of Keurig to make universally recyclable single use pods.  

Stay trashy, folks! 

UPDATE: A week after publishing this post, the inventor of the K-cup came out and said he feels bad for even inventing them.