Some waste with your coffee?

 The Good Green Witch is a major coffee-hound. Don't talk to me until I have had a few sips of my morning joe. I need coffee so badly in the mornings that sometimes I can't prepare my coffee til I've had coffee. I have very few vices; this is one I will keep, thank you.

Where there's coffee, there's frequently a plastic product to throw away. Lids on take-out coffee, stirrers, those little single-serve creamers... there's no shortage of something to throw away. I try to avoid those things. I make my coffee at home, in a French press. But the cool thing to do now is to have those super-awesome Keurig & Tassimo & Senseo machines that dispense one perfectly measured portioned cup of perfect coffee at a perfect time. Mmmm. You don't even have to open the little cup! You don't have to think about ANY part of it! Just press the button! How accessible! How convenient! (Oops, there THAT word) Have I used one of these before? Yes. Did I love it? Yes. Was it great coffee? Yes. Was it oh-so-cool? YES! Did I cringe at the waste??? Oh yes.

They make it really sneaky, too. They drop the little plastic cups with the perfectly measured portioned cup of coffee back into some little vat for future collection. You don't have to see your waste every time you brew. You can live safe in your false belief that this isn't that bad. But it is. It really is. How many millions of these little cups are going into waste every day? All the offices that use these... all the sets here in Hollywood... and now everyone at home... There is a staggering number of companies who makes these little pods. But hey. This is what "they" call progress. And free enterprise. And capitalism. I call it fodder for the Gyres. And a needless use of oil to make the plastic. Etc.

Setting aside the waste issue for a second... let's look at health. Isn't it supposed to be bad to heat things in plastic? But here we are shooting NEAR-BOILING water through these little plastic doohickeys. Is this how they work? I think so... Oh sure, it's only there for a second. But - but - but... are we thinking about implications over many many cups?? Why are we ignoring that? We are not supposed to drink water from a bottle that has been exposed to the heat of, say, your car for fear of toxins leeching into the water, but we can deal with it if it's in the coffee/tea/hot chocolate? Am I missing something, or am I just crazy? Is it me? Really. I'm serious. IS IT ME??

I'll stick to my stainless steel press. Sure it's a little hot to turn the top, but I can deal. It's thermal, so I even use my microwave less. It's sturdy, it won't break like my last glass one, it'll be around for quite some time. How about you? Next time you see these in the doctors' office (yep, seen 'em there), the auto repair place, the office... ask the people using it how they enjoy those toxins with their coffee. Or pretend you're on your phone and make some comment about how those little plastic thingies aren't getting recycled in any near reality. 

Forgive my grumpiness. I must not have had enough coffee yet today.