K-cup boosterism fund

Kuerig Green Mountain (formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters) got a nice big primetime shout-out from Shumlin in his inauguration speech at the state house. The K-cup giant has promised to donate $5 million over five years in kick off funds to the new Vermont Clean Water Fund.

Shumlin’s boosterism couldn’t be more timely, coming right now, with coffee maker recalls and pressure increasing from environmental groups to make all K-cups recyclable.  

VPR reports that a Canadian media company has produced short video depicting an urban landscape engulfed in a K-cup apocalypse.

[…] a massive, Godzilla-like monster made entirely of K-Cups belching a high volume of K-Cups down onto the unnamed city; a photographer being crushed by a car-sized K-Cup; a woman being stomped on by the aforementioned K-Cup monster

It has been estimated that the 8.3 billion K-cups produced by Kuerig in 2013 are enough to wrap around the equator 10.5 times. And if that isn’t enough, it is overpriced! The cost of the coffee at 8 grams per capsule is roughly $50.00 per pound.

The pod maker’s Chief Sustainability Officer did respond to VPR regarding the Canadian video at length.She noted at length their growing efforts to recycle the plastic cups ,and says it is a priority.

“It’s a difficult challenge, but we’ve been working hard to find a solution.”

It's hard, they whine, after all the tax breaks Vermont has handed to Kuerig (formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters) over the years, including a half-million-dollar yearly tax break on the K-cup packaging machine. So why wouldn’t the hugely profitable corporation “give back” a bit in the form of a public well-timed gift to the state.

Now $5 million over five years is certainly a thoughtful gift, but it sure looks like an affordable pre-packaged PR cuppa of Kuerig –- this one full of greenwash.

7 thoughts on “K-cup boosterism fund

  1. Let’s see…GMC bought the Keurig system in 1998, was it?  

    That’s about eighteen years ago.  I remember phoning them way back in 2000 or so because I was frustrated with the machine’s inability to interact with a reusable plastic device that Keurig made to supposedly allow the user to grind his/her own coffee and use it with the machine.  Keurig actually marketed the device, but it didn’t even work!!

    The customer service person told me that they were “working on” making recyclable K-Cups.  That’s fifteen years ago.

    There is still no functional reusable coffee container for the machine and no recyclable K-Cups made by Keurig.  

    In the interim, such marvels as 3-D printers have been perfected to the point that even some “affordable” models are available for personal use.

    In the interim, we landed a spacecraft on an asteroid, and tiny robotic drones have overtaken our earth.

    What the hell, Keurig?  Your technical staff DO have opposable thumbs, don’t they?

    A million a year is chump-change when compared to the profits the company has seen from this one device, and the egregious waste it has generated!

  2. Entire extended family is completely dazzled by & inured to this hunk of junk as though it’s the advanced version of an appliance like the percolater or vacuum pot was to the drip brewers we all have. The only good news – none of my kids have them.

    And of course they think I’m nuts. Like drug addicts they just blankly stare b/c they don’t care when confronted with hard truths.

    First it’s Facebook bulletins, then it’s Google warnings, now the newly enshrined fave possesion & treasured monument to modernity — newest shiny object & modern wonder — the Keurig is under fire! Coffee for $15.00/lb to my $5.33 for the Eight O’clock high-end. Under the Keurig spell they don’t seem to notice or even care that the coffee is simply horrid. What a scam!

    Have a wonderful coffee grinder & got a free Gevalia pot to offset the high cost of the coffee.

    I grind my own to flour by the pot, it’s gourmet quality even if it’s the old standby Eight O’clock. Plus it’s better for one’s health as anything with oils is subject to rancidity.

  3. No this isn’t from Onion.

    But it’s beyond belief that this latest Keurig product is REAL.  

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — General Electric and Keurig Green Mountain unveiled a refrigerator with a Keurig single-cup coffee brewing system built into one of its French doors.

    The $3,300 refrigerator will be made at Louisville’s Appliance Park beginning in the summer. GE officials declined to say how many they plan to make.

    You can program this Keurig coffeemaker from bed with your smartphone, and it’ll be waiting for you on your…refrigerator door?  

    http://www.wdrb.com/story/2784

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