Coffee capsules: Are we buying trash?

10 plastic capsules
10 aluminium film lids
10 plastic sachets
1 cardboard box
0.052 kg of coffee
33.65 EUR/kg

The funniest thing is this text on the package (originally in German): “UTZ certified. With our […] capsules, you support sustainable coffee farming. UTZ certified farmers are being educated to produce coffee with regard for people and the environment.”

I am pretty sure the coffee is not the sustainability problem here 😀 An average commercial coffee tree produces about 1 kg of coffee beans per year. With this kind of packaging, that would also mean 20 cardboard boxes and 200 each of capsules, lids and sachets. I’d love to have a picture of this little 620-piece trash dump below a coffee tree. I know we’re talked into buying coffee capsules with the argument of convenience, but of course the real motivation is profit – just look at the price tag.

Coffee can be packaged simpler and cheaper when we’d buy green beans and roast, grind and brew our coffee at home. For this, a simple paper bag is enough, because unroasted coffee has not yet any aroma that could be lost through contact with oxygen. And if, for some reason, we really want convenient, time-saving coffee sometimes, why not just buy cold-brew coffee concentrate in reusable glass bottles.

But capsules are economical, environmental and technological nonsense. I’ll always vote against them with my money …

(Brand name etc. has been removed from the packaging. No need to call out a specific retailer, since all of them sell coffee in capsules.)

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