An interesting – and wonderful – trend has taken root over the past several years: everyday people are becoming increasingly concerned about the environment. Let’s face it, green is in. From recycling plastics to composting to minimizing water waste, consumers are always in search of a new way to minimize their consumption footprint and – in the process – are willing to punish those unwilling to change bad habits. Given this, sustainability has never been so important to business conduct.
Along these lines, many companies have put into place corporate social responsibility (CSR) directors. These individuals are charged with ensuring that their company implements and follows best practices regarding business ethics, environmental stewardship, and generally behaves as a responsible corporate citizen. One of the easiest ways for companies to make an immediate impact is to commit to a recycling program. Yet….
Daily, millions of office employees across the U.S. brew their coffee and tea in Keurig machines using K-Cup capsules that are destined for the trash because they are not recyclable. Due to their popularity, more than 27 MILLION K-Cups are used and discarded each day. To put that into perspective, enough K-Cups are thrown out each month that – lain end to end – they would encircle the entire globe. That’s every month, 12 months a year. Just imagine the impact on landfills across this country.
Now, Keurig has committed to having a recyclable solution for their capsules by 2020. But by then, an additional 50 BILLION K-Cups will already be in the garbage, polluting our environment. We need a better solution now. What does not need to change are coffee consumption habits or brewing beverages by the cup—those are not at the root of the problem. The answer lies in the preparation, in the coffee capsule itself. It is time to take stock of our single serve habits and adopt the recyclable options already available now. It is time for SolaBev.