Should Coffee Pods Be Banned?

Coffee pods, first sold by Nespresso and then made widely popular by Keurig, are simple, easy to use and quick. We all know this to be true. But we also know that these tiny, difficult-to-recycle plastic pods aren't the best for the environment. So much so that Hamburg, Germany, banned the pods last month, according to Quartz.

The Hamburg ban isn't citywide, however. The cups are banned only in state-run buildings, in a city in which one in every eight cups of coffee sold is brewed from capsules.

Thirteen percent of Americans are K-Cup culprits, which may not seem like that many, but it's high enough a number that some have urged Keurig to change its environmentally harmful production.

According to Keurig's website, the company has made a commitment to make its products easily recyclable by 2020. Four years? That's not soon enough for even the K-Cup's own creator! Quartz reports that the man himself has ceased to use K-Cups because he "feels bad" about their wastefulness. Come to think of it, that's sort of like the parent of a bully saying, "Yeah, I wouldn't even be friends with this kid."