I think people also probably just realized how much of assholes they're being by using single-use containers for making coffee every day. The one-use concept is nice in theory, but it creates so much trash. It's obnoxious.
They are all analogous. They're all conveniences that use disposable containers. And no-one is calling people a holes for eating Hungry Man.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/waste-the-dark-side-of...
And actually, I do think that people who consume heavily packaged foods all the time are being needlessly wasteful and should feel bad about it. Do you not see the fallacy in your argument, of replying to a complaint about people who generate this sort of waste on a regular basis with questions about whether the other poster ever does anything wasteful? Of course s/he does, we all do. But there's a huge difference between occasional and systematic inefficiency.
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"People didn't think too much about that back then," he said, pausing a bit before he went on, "I feel kind of guilty. The world's changed in fifteen years." He told me he's proud he created something that's so well loved, but "hindsight's 20/20," he said. "I wouldn't do it now."
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He also says right before that that he didn't think about the waste issue at all, but I'm pretty doubtful. Engineers are taught to design for consumable/disposable parts and planned obsolescence, or at least to take them into consideration and compare them to material cost. These sorts of things can be a determining factor of whether a product can even come into existence or not. If he didn't know what he was doing, somebody working with him certainly did and pushed for it.
Introducing waste for activities that happen as frequently as coffee drinking is why it's different.
I really can't understand why offices use keurig.
It eliminates the interpersonal drama that can waste crazy amounts of time in an office. If there's a large central carafe of coffee, it can lead to:
people fighting over what brand/roast/strength to make
people fighting over a freeloader not refilling it
people fighting over who cleans it and how often
etc.
(I know that sounds crazy, but I've seen it)
With the pods, everyone can get their own coffee/tea/whatever in a little independant transaction, no drama. To the company there might be a slight increase in cost (but still almost nothing) and increase in waste (do most companies care?), but their employees are happier, so it's an easy trade off.
Edit: I'm not saying I support the use of these pods in offices, just giving some of the reasoning companies have embraced them in some places.
The coffee maker has one brew position and two extra hot plates. At any given time there are three carafes sitting on the hotplates, about 1/2 full. And they've been sitting there for a couple hours. When I want a cup of coffee, I smell the existing ones, toss whichever one is the most burnt, and brew a whole pot. Then I pour my one cup. Maybe one other person will have a cup and the rest gets tossed when someone else has to make room for their choice.
I'm not saying I'd prefer a Keurig—I prefer drip-brewed to that—but I understand why an office would like to have one. Not having to wait for an entire pot to brew would be nice.
You could even argue that there's less waste in espresso-style…people make a single drink at a time, and generally drink it. With large carafes of drip coffee, a lot gets thrown away because sitting too long on a hot plate causes it to taste burnt.
I replied to worklogin's comment about lambasting the waste aspect as being self-righteous. I know the article is about DRM but we're having a tangential discussion about the waste...
It's like a company forcing me to use mayo sachets at home, rather than buying a bottle, because it makes them more money. That's not convenience, that's profiteering at the expense of the environment and the consumer.
And yes I get take-out, etc...which is usually not recyclable. Atleast with this 'solution', it is one more instance where I can be active about limiting my trash.
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Coffee companies are well aware of the problem. The second brewing system Keurig introduced, the Vue system, tried to address the issue of recyclability in what the company called "an incremental step on our environmental journey." The system doesn't work with the original K-Cup packs, which are made from number seven plastic, a blended plastic that's nearly impossible to recycle. Instead, the Vue capsules use a plastic cup made from polypropylene, number five plastic, and users can peel the foil lid and filter away from the cup.
The cups are then recyclable — in theory. The problem is the cups are too small to be captured in most recycling facilities where machinery separates objects by size and density, said Mark Oldfield, assistant director of public affairs for California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. Most facilities filter out items under two-inches in diameter. In any case, number five plastic is rarely recycled in California, Oldfield said. "It's very difficult to deal with something like that," he added. "It's something where convenience is trumping our typical mantra of reducing and recycling."
In the meantime, look for Compostable K-Cups. They're a solution to this problem, which hasn't been marketed enough for you to be aware of it.