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Coffee is extremely resource-intensive anyway, in terms of water usage in production, transport distance and energy for roasting. This is mostly why it is so expensive.
I'm not really up to speed on this side of things, but is there much of an issue around production not able to meet demand (in terms of driving up the price)? And if so do you know what the main reason(s) for that is? I've always had a bit of an assumption that land availability was a limiting factor but no idea how accurate an assumption that is.
mmccarthy
@Jonny69
I’m partially familiar with this study so maybe I’ll just put the salient points here.
Coffee is extremely resource-intensive anyway, in terms of water usage in production, transport distance and energy for roasting. This is mostly why it is so expensive.
Filter coffee, prepared in a machine, is worst because the coffee filters into a container on a hotplate and wastes an enormous amount of energy after preparation. If you have a filter machine with an insulated flask to keep the coffee hot instead of a hotplate, you eliminate these losses. This was a conclusion made as far back as 2007/2008.
They are only justifying the use of pods on the grounds (inorite, lol) that there is only 10-12g of coffee in a pod. Less than any of the other methods. They seem to be completely ignoring the fact that pods, despite technically being recyclable, are not recycled by waste handlers because they are mixed waste. The overwhelming majority go to landfill.
But comparing the effects of climate change from energy usage with the effects of non-biodegradable waste in landfill is comparing apples with oranges. They’re different problems which both need addressing.