After reading the Washington Post‘s deep-dive into the environmental impact of using coffee pods, I’m curious about other questions. The article compares coffee pods to the traditional automatic drip coffee machine, and also to making instant coffee, and finds that pods are generally less harmful despite the packaging issue. The main reason is that pod users waste less coffee, and coffee production has more carbon dioxide impact than any other factor. The secondary reason is household energy consumption, and here the main advantage is that pod users don’t have leave a kettle on to keep the coffee warm. There are some other factors that can have an impact, like whether you home uses fossil fuels or renewable energy to produce electricity, whether or not you recycle the pods, and how much coffee you make but don’t drink. Adding milk has a negative environmental impact, but that’s true no matter the brewing method.
In our house, we don’t use the automatic drip machine and we don’t make instant coffee. My wife prefers the pod method, and she froths some milk to go with it and then recycles the cartridges. I sometimes use this method (without the frothing) when I’m feeling lazy, but I generally grind my beans and use a French press. My method isn’t discussed at all in the Washington Post article.
Now, it’s true that I use some electricity grinding the beans, but the beans get ground at some point in the process no matter what method is used. Unfortunately, we don’t have renewable energy so that’s a possible factor. Now, I use a kettle to heat the water but I don’t keep the coffee heated after I make it. Instead, I will microwave it to heat up subsequent cups. This probably turns my method into an environmental disaster, but I don’t really know how it compares to having an automatic machine turned on for hours. As for wasting coffee, that’s pretty infrequent. When I used an automatic machine, evaporation would sometimes make the coffee too concentrated and bitter, but with the French press, on the rare occasions when I don’t consume everything I make on the first day, it’s still drinkable the next morning. Perhaps I sometimes make my coffee stronger than I need to, which may compare unfavorably with the pod method.
An advantage of both my wife’s and my method is that we don’t need any coffee filters, which I imagine have a big environmental impact.
These questions are only modestly interesting if we limit the discussion to coffee, but the exercise is useful anyway if you begin to consider all the different ways you use electricity in the house, and whether you’re making the best financial, practical, and environmental decisions. I don’t recommend obsessing over these issues lest to strip all the joy out of life, but they’re worth considering in case you can make an easy change in your habits that can make your life better and help save energy.
since that wapo article is paywalled, I don’t know what they say about recycling the pods, i think that’s a very questionable issue.
i use an automatic drip coffee maker, with paper filter, and add half-and-half. i usually turn off the heating element after pouring my first cup, it’s ok with me if the second cup is lukewarm.
Considering all the aspects of home energy use, like where the thermostat is set, I don’t think coffee is a big part of it.
I have a basic drip coffee maker. Good coffee is expensive, so I don’t throw any out. It’s a small coffee-maker too, so I drink it all at once.
Otherwise, I’ve considered purchasing one of those hybrid Keurig machines with both a pod maker and a drip coffee maker. That’s mainly because I’m thinking of renting this place out as an Airbnb occasionally and it seems that Keurig devices are pretty standard for Airbnbs.
I use pods. Its fast and convenient and I don’t waste anything.
I work at a recycle center in WA state. Pods don’t get recycled even if the curbside bins get picked up. It’s green wash if the manufacturers say they do. I grind my own beans and use a French press. I’m not a recycle freak but pods are a convenience and should be banned.
I use both. If it’s a weekend or a day off work and I have a project to do, I generally brew a big pot with the drip machine. It has a washable filter (probably poisoning me) so there’s no paper waste, and in recent years I generally turn off the warmer and pour the coffee over ice unless the weather is cold (subtropics here so the winter is short).
The pod machine is for when I only want/have time for a single cup or if I want an espresso drink. The pods are pvc (possibly poison too) with a thin strip of foil inside, so with some effort I disassemble and clean them for recycling. I often wonder how much of the stuff actually gets recycled, but that’s a different conversation.
We use a drip coffee maker with unbleached paper filters. We put both filter and grounds in either our compost pile or worm bin. Either way, they end up as excellent compost
During the week I make one 12 oz cup in the Keurig to take with me on the drive to work. Add a splash of half and half to it. I have the reusable pod for the Keurig that I just rinse out every day. I also grind my own beans. Never was a huge fan of the single use disposable pods. Thought the coffee generally tasted like shit, and throwing it in the trash every day seemed pretty wasteful.
On weekends I have a small stove top percolator I use, and perk it on a gas (propane) stove. I usually drink the whole pot, but if there’s some left over I warm it in the microwave the next day. Rarely does coffee just get poured down the drain.
Seems the only disposable waste I have from this is the coffee grounds, and we compost those. From an energy use standpoint, I’m not sure where I fall, but I like not having anything go into the trash every day from my coffee regimen.
I use the Nespresso pods, allow myself 2 pods a day max with my frothed oat milk, and recycle by shipping the pods back to the manufacturer in the shipping envelope provided. I’m not sure how that stacks up environmentally, but I’m hoping that it’s balanced out by using a bento box and beeswax sandwich wraps instead of plastic bags for packing lunch the boy’s every day? And I need some small reward when I get up at o’dark thirty every morning to get a middle schooler out the door to school, LOL
Espresso, here. I use 14.4 g for a shot (technically a double shot) and no filter to dispose. The grounds go into our compost and then onto the veg garden. I only make one shot for each of us per day. We steam 5 oz of milk to split between us and the machine burns about a kW for about 10 minutes. Using 4.33 × 10-4 metric tons CO2/kWh from the EPA website, that’s 433 g/kWh or about 72 g CO2 for the 10 minutes the machine is heating plus around 150 g CO2 for the production of the milk.
Bravo, Bob. You did math!
Well everyone else is commenting so I might as well admit being the a-hole who doesn’t like coffee and drinks coke zero in the morning instead, so if you need article fodder you can go ahead and write about all the ways *that* habit is problematic 🙂
Pays your dentist’s bills.
I buy giant bags of medium roast from Wegmans, grind the beans, and use an electric kettle in combination with a French press. I make two presses at a time, pour some into a large mason jar and store it in the fridge for iced coffee. The rest just sit out during the day as necessary. I’d say I average 3 large cups a day? My wife drinks 1. If I work all day from morning to night I can drink up to 5. Despite the large quantities of coffee I consume, I don’t particularly notice feeling much different if I go days without it; no headaches or feeling tired. I like the taste and need something to drink, fits the bill nicely.
Coffee/caffeine is definitely my vice. If I’m at home on a day off, I’ll brew an entire regular size coffee pot worth of coffee and drink all or almost all of it. I drink it black. Usually I drink a dark roast, Kroger brand. But I’ll also sometimes brew half dark roast, half “private selection” mocha latte. I’ve messed around with a French Press for a couple of years but a drip machine is good enough and I don’t have to grind fresh beans and go through the whole process for a peak brew, so I mostly stick with grounds and a drip machine. I love coffee, as long as it isn’t burnt or watery, I’ll drink it.
If there is leftover coffee, I pour into a “cold brew” container that my partner uses for cold brew. The quality isn’t that important because she fancies it up with cream and/or flavoring. If I drink cold brew at home, it’s going to be black just like my brewed coffee.
At work I use K Cups because there’s a Keurig machine there, and I can usually find K Cups on clearance at Kroger. I prefer a plain dark roast, but I’ll pick up a flavored box of K Cups and give them a try, but most of them aren’t that great.
If I’m out and about around Atlanta, I’ll pop into a local place and get an Americano or a cold brew. If I’m travelling, I’ll indulge and get Starbucks along the way and get an Americano or a cold brew. If I’m in a place for a few days or longer, I’ll usually find a local place to get coffee while I’m there.
Ultimately, there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. Don’t burn a drum of oil as your heat source for your coffee and you’re fine. Societal collapse is ongoing regardless of how you make your coffee.
And to follow up that last bit, if you enjoy coffee, buy it on clearance when available and make sure you have a week or twos worth on hand…then First In First Out it. Much like everything else we all take for granted, it won’t be as easily available in the future and depending on how shit goes down, may not be that easily available/cheap as we move forward. Not only is coffee a delicacy that can help you through tough times and help with resiliency, it’s also something you can barter with.
Nespresso. I recyle the pods religiously.
I have a coffee habit – one cup a day, but I’m thinking of getting an electric conical burr grinder to replace my hand grinder, so that would make it easy for me to have the occasional second cup. Right now, I’m hand-grinding some World Market beans I got for Christmas, 14g per cup, pour-over style.
When those beans are gone, I will resume roasting my own, using an inexpensive Popper* roaster. I have rooftop solar and prefer to heat water and roast beans when the sun is shining, but ….
The * in Popper* is part of the name. It’s sold at sweetmarias dot com if anyone wants to check it out.
I have a basic drip coffee maker. Good coffee is expensive, so I don’t throw any out. It’s a small coffee-maker too, so I drink it all at once.