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points by AdamN 3 days ago | 0 comments
Yeah this is the real issue. Ironically Nespresso pods are probably more environmentally friendly even if thrown in the trash and not recycled because the real environmental burden comes from the coffee itself and those pods are highly efficient in terms of how little coffee is consumed per shot.

I still drink coffee regularly so am not going to say people should stop doing what I continue to do but it's worth it for coffee drinkers to be thoughtful about the impact of their consumption.

[–] amanaplanacanal 3 days ago
Environmental burden of coffee: are you taking about transport costs to wherever you are, or something else?
[–] AdamN 2 days ago
The excess coffee used at home vs the precise amount in a Nespresso pod is the driver of that delta that I was referring to.

The overall issue is that coffee pod waste is de minimus compared to the environmental impact of the coffee industry at large.

[–] benrutter 3 days ago
Not OP, but coffee is really high on water use, and can be a big cause of deforestation in some cases. So they're probably getting at this.
[–] my-huge-pony 3 days ago
Apparently producing coffee beans for one large coffee uses 140kg of water. Ok, that sounds like a lot.

But also apparently producing one meal worth of chicken takes 700kg of water. Over 3000kg of water for beef. So I think, in comparison, coffee water use if negligible.