Compostable Coffee Pods Are Here to Save the Earth

Keurig's single-cup coffee maker is the preferred tool for many who want their morning cup of joe with as little effort as possible. It's quick and easy to use, and if you're more interested in the caffeine than the taste of the coffee, it produces a fine beverage. Of course, it requires K-cups, little pods of coffee contained in plastic, which produce an exorbitant amount of waste.

For the Keurig user who feels guilty about its environmental impact, good news has arrived. A roastery in Ontario, Canada, is selling 100 percent compostable coffee pods that are actually compatible with Keurig devices. TreeHugger reports the PurPod, as it's called, fully disappears in a compost site after roughly 84 days.

Club Coffee, a Canadian distributor, and the Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre at the University of Guelph in Ontario partnered to create the PurPod. Instead of traditional plastic, the pod is reportedly made out of coffee chaff, a natural byproduct of the bean-roasting process. The pod has been certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute, which is a non-profit that claims to be a "leading authority on compostable products."

It's a step in the right direction for environmentally conscious coffee drinkers, but PurPods aren't perfect. TreeHugger reports they require more energy to make and more space in shipping, and some municipal composting programs won't accept them for fear of non-compostable coffee pods slipping through the cracks.

If the PurPod doesn't turn out to be a viable alternative to K-cups, perhaps an eco-friendly Keurig knock-off will do the job.