Last year, Keurig founder John Sylvan said he was ambivalent about his blockbuster invention, the single-serve coffee pod. Sure, he had sold his share of the company in 1997 for $50,000, and his invention accounted for most of the $4.5 billion in sales that Keurig Green Mountain made last year—so that was, perhaps, a mistake.
But Sylvan told The Atlantic he occasionally regrets having invented the Keurig in the first place. “I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it,” he said.
According to estimates, the number of Keurig K-Cups buried in landfills in 2014 could circle the world more than 12 times. No wonder, because the single-serve coffee habit is hard to break. Keurig coffee is easy, quick, and mess-free. But the plastic pods are particularly difficult to recycle because of their mixed elements: layered plastic, a filter, coffee grounds, and a foil top.
Enter the G-Kup. It’s like the K-Cup, but compostable. Its makers say it will be available sometime early this year.
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The Canadian invention is the work of CEO Darren Footz, who partnered with researchers at the University of British Columbia to create a 100 percent compostable cup out of bamboo fiber and sugar cane. Footz has invested a reported $6.9 million on the development of the G-Kup.
“Consumers said, ‘I love the K-Cup but feel guilty about using it, I wish there was another way,’” Footz told the Financial Post in November 2015. “[I]t was a eureka moment.”
Keurig Green Mountain is also working on a recyclable version of its K-Cup. According to the company’s sustainability plan, 100 percent of K-Cups will be recyclable by 2020.
(Via TakePart)
