How To Use a Keurig Without Destroying the Environment

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It’s no secret that Keurig coffee brewers are all the rage right now. Heck, I’ve got two—one at home and one at work. They’re really convenient, because everyone can have their own flavor of coffee without having to waste a whole pot.

But here’s the thing—K-Cups are incredibly wasteful. They aren’t recyclable or biodegradable, so they have to go in the trash after each use, and they just sit in landfills. It’s estimated that all of the K-Cups tossed out in 2014 would circle the earth more than 12 times. Even the inventor of the Keurig regrets making them non-recyclable.

So, how does a tree hugger like me deal with this reality? Quite easily, actually. Here’s how to use a Keurig without destroying the environment.

Are you ready for this Earth-shattering technique? Use coffee grounds and a reusable K-Cup.

How to Use a Keurig + Coffee Grounds

I’ve tried a couple different reusable K-Cups, and I’ve found the one I love. But, you know, different strokes for different folks.

Starting out, we got a few reusable filters. They’ve got mesh lining that you scoop the coffee grounds into, pop it into your Keurig, and voila! Your own coffee in your Keurig. Here’s the only problem I had with them: you have to clean them out each time. Which meant we had to get three or four of them, because no one felt like cleaning the grounds out first thing in the morning. Before you get your coffee, no less.

That’s when I happily stumbled upon the EZ Cup. It’s just like the other ones, but it uses biodegradable filters. So you fill your filter, put on the cap, brew your coffee, and toss the filter, grounds and all! Easy peasy.

My home Keurig is a few years old, so it doesn’t have the obnoxious Keurig 2.0 technology. Luckily, EZ Cup has gotten around this! There’s a K2.0 reusable cup that works wonderfully with my work Keurig. I keep a canister of grounds and a canister of filters on my desk, and voila! Coffee whenever I want.

Not only are the biodegradable and reusable K-Cups great for the environment, but they’re also great for your wallet. We get a big bag of coffee beans from Costco once every other month and grind them as we need them. It’s way cheaper to buy a $10 bag of beans that will last two months than it is to spend $10 on enough K-Cups to last me a week.

The filters are super inexpensive, too. We get a package of 200 every so often, and it only costs about $22. Totally worth it.

Do you use a Keurig? Have you ever tried reusable K-Cups? Let me know in the comments!