Kuurigu's 'K cup' putting a cup of coffee inventors regret their own inventions

The K- cig coffee system that puts coffee one cup at a time with small capsules containing coffee beans is now used by many families. However, the developers of the K-cup coffee system did not use their invented items and called "to think well" to consumers about the use of K cup as "why K cup can not understand this popularity" It is.

K-Cup creator John Sylvan regrets inventing Keurig coffee pod system | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-regrets-inventing-keurig-coffee-pod-system-1.2982660

Kurigu 's K - cup coffee system that extracts coffee using a small cup appeared in 1998. According to John Sylvan who worked for Kuroig at the time and developed the K Cup coffee system, this system was originally created for office workers. People usually buying coffee in Starbucks and Dunkin Donut in the morning were thought to be a means to get coffee at a cheaper, faster rate, without having to bother with hands. It was thought that it is environmentally neutral in that it does not waste the paper cup than purchasing coffee at the shop.

However, the K Cup coffee system is now popular not only in the office but also in the home. In the five years to 2015, the sales of K cup " Keurig Green Mountain " has doubled to nearly 5 billion dollars (about 550 billion yen). According to the NPD group of the survey company, in 2014 it was found that about 40% of Canadian families have a type of coffee maker to enter. The amount of garbage in the discarded K cup is enormous, and it is said that it is said that you can make the earth 10 laps with K cup waste of one year.

Mr. Sylvan has already left the queuing and said it sold ownership for $ 50,000 (about 5.6 million yen). And although he is pleased with the popularity of the K Cup system as a creator, he says that he can not understand why people like this K cup system so much. For Mr. Sylvan, the K cup system is "too expensive" and Sylvan himself uses water and coffee beans in the evening and uses a type of coffee maker that extracts coffee in the pot in the morning It's called. In this way, a certain amount of coffee is made together, so coffee to be discarded is also born, but you can make it cheaper than extracting every cup.

by Nick Karvounis

Since coffee beans begin to deteriorate when exposed to oxygen, commercially available coffee is contained in foil bags which generally do not pass air. Plastic does not have impermeability like a foil bag, but the K cup has the same function as a foil bag by integrating multiple plastic layers. Because it can not be classified as general recyclable garbage, it has big problems as garbage.

In 2015, a movie "Kill the K Cup" was also made. In addition, there is also written in the comment section of the movie Sylvan's "Sorry, John Sylvan, from the inventor of K Cup.PS I am not using K Cup".

Kill the K-Cup - YouTube


In response to this trend, Kuroig developed a recyclable K cup. "We will make 100% K cup recyclable by 2020".

Recyclable K-Cup® Pods & Recycling Information | Keurig
https://www.keurig.com/recyclable

Mr. Sylvan also wonders about the attitude of consumers, "Consumers need to think firmly about their choice.I think their choice to buy products is really worthwhile in the long run Try "" From a personal point of view, K cup will be 20 seconds a day reduction in time, how much is it worth it? " "Even if there are other methods, they will not look into it." "Because they can not think of softening their heads, they will continue to make small plastic cups forever." "You ignore that fact You can do it, but you can start with the problem from an engineering perspective, "Sylvan said.