Eh - there is actually plenty of room for pretty much all the trash humanity could possibly create. A hole ten miles square and couple of hundred feet deep could hold all of the U.S.'s trash for the next 100 years (this is not a controversial statement). And recycling is energy inefficient for pretty much everything but aluminum and steel.

Keurig solved a huge problem in offices - how to always have coffee available when people en masse are pretty bad at refilling the coffee. No amount of hand wringing will make people better at things like refilling coffee.

Like space, energy is also a non-argument, there's plenty of it.

The thing we don't have is infinite petroleum resources to make single use plastic cups. The other thing we don't need is unnecessary amounts of toxic production polluting the air, water, and land far and wide outside the hole in the ground where the waste goes.

What was the problem? There were already machines that self filled with water. Just toss coffee in a filter and go!

I promise you, it's NOT that hard.

And yet, people still don't make a new pot when they take the last of the old.

There's a reason one of the classic books in conversion optimization is called "Don't make me think!"

I've read some convincing arguments where they calculated that keurigs are less wasteful than brewing because of the tiny amount of coffee in a pod, versus large scoop of grounds you are using in a coffee pot, which translates to huge resource savings in growing the beans.

You know, I hate the waste of a Keurig, but it has advantages as well as costs. Remember how bad office coffee used to be? Over-cooked, lukewarm, foul? All that goes away with a K-cup machine. I despise the waste, but man is it a colossal improvement in quality.

I buy brands that make their pods biodegradable. This one specifically is cheap and doesn't harm the environment. I can throw these into my garden and they disappear pretty quickly: http://www.amazon.com/San-Francisco-Bay-OneCup-Coffees/dp/B0...

The problem with taking a few minutes is that some of us who drink coffee don't have a few minutes. Not a morning person - and that's why I drink it in the first place.

> Toss the whole maker away when it breaks, too.

Just like a laptop.

Indeed. Just like every electrical item. Integrated circuits aren't easy to repair, or cost effective for that matter.

I don't think Keurig machines are well made as an aside, so more of them get thrown away than there should be. But that's an issue with Keurig, I don't really expect your average consumer to be popping open electronics and repairing things (regardless of what the item is).

>Did you know coffee grinds make a great nutritious supplement to household plants and gardens?

Nope. I don't drink coffee, as I dislike the taste. Chewing roasted coffee is more fun than drinking it.