single-use plastics need to be completely banned…
Especially for stuff like this, where the pods could easily (and often are) just replaced with stainless steel strainers + standard compostible paper filter liners that you load up with a tablespoon from a traditional container.
that you load up with a tablespoon from a traditional container
The point of the pods is to make money from people with two seconds to make their coffee. Yes, it’s wasteful and expensive, but that’s the point. You can make great coffee over an open fire. Or in a basic French press.
These pods could still be made from plant based alternatives and be compostables. Nothing about this needs to be plastic.
The companies have to be forced to do that, we all well know they won’t otherwise.
Sure, that’s the point of one pod. What the hell is the point of two pods?
Maybe people have four seconds to make their coffee
“So you can craft your own unique blend of coffee flavours.” You can mix mild bran with strong bran. For a deliciously unique medium bran flavour.
I hate typing this because it gives Nestle the slightest shred of credit. Their pods are aluminum and recyclable. Keurig k-cups started off as non-recyclable plastic but have now switched to some kind of, apparently, recyclable plastic…supposedly. Doesn’t make the use of pods much better but it’s not nothing.
Aren’t you supposed to rip off the top, empty out the coffee into your compost/garbage, and then recycle the pod? Or you can drop them off at a store where they sit for a couple day until the coffee starts to rot and the whole thing gets shipped to Nespresso where they probably throw it in a a landfill.
Fuck this abomination.
Can’t wait for Hoffmann to do a video on this monstrosity!
And the subsequent video from Hames
Me too!
Is there a point to this apart from crass consumerism?
There is merit to the huge variety of flavour combinations you could get from mixing two pods together, I do that quite often with whole coffee beans myself depending on what I feel like drinking. You could keep a dozen different pods stocked and make 66 combos from them.
Which you could also do by brewing two pods back to back with a regular pod machine, but I guess that would be too much effort.But like, everytime I’ve had Nespresso coffee, it never tasted that noticeably different between varieties. So it’s not like you’re gonna be getting much out of that.
And with all the variability they pitch, like, why not get a home espresso machine for cheaper?
Wait, am I suppose to drink the Robot’s Diarrhea?
I’ll keep my French press, thanks. The only waste is coffee grounds which I use for compost.
I do wonder how much waste a pod generates vs a bag of coffee beans. Like, if you weigh an empty bag of beans, it’s a lot of material. I wish more roasters would switch to compostable bags, but of course they’re more expensive and probably don’t keep the coffee as fresh.
Hmmm the roaster I use always has compostable bags, I hadn’t even thought of buying any that aren’t compostable. Along with using a french press, it’s pretty much the closest I can get to sustainable with good coffee. I just compost the coffee grounds separately from the rest.
Are you sure the bag is compostable? The paper bags are often lined with plastic inside.
Edit:
Interesting. I’ll look out for these:
https://elevatepackaging.com/8oz-kraft-compostable-stand-up-pouch-with-valve/
