"Our view on single serving cups & why we won't partake"

We understand that many coffee companies offer single cup servings, however, at Stickboy Coffee we feel that a single cup offering goes against our environmental values and our mission statement as a coffee company. When you break down the actual costs that you, the customer, end up spending in the long run for single cup servings, you might be surprised at just how much more you're actually spending!

John Sylvan, the founder of single cup servings, has publically stated that he feels bad that he created them because they are so bad for the environment. (Evans, 2015) They are almost impossible to recycle. "People want convenience, even if it's not sustainable. I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use ... plus it’s not like drip coffee is tough to make" said Sylvan. (Baer, 2015)

Stickboy Coffee could never ask our customers to pay so much for coffee. Single cups are convenient, but they cost about 80 cents per cup of coffee. If you prefer stronger coffee like myself, you will need to use two signal cup servings costing $1.60 per cup of coffee. That’s roughly $36.48/lb of coffee. On average, we sell our coffee for $13/lb and our 5lb bags average $50 ($10/lb) per bag.

Now, if you get 228 single cup servings (which is about 5 pounds of coffee) you are spending about $182.40. Again, we like to provide our coffee at the lowest price possible and this cost goes against that value. You work hard for your money. We want to provide affordable craft coffee to our awesome customers!

"Our commitment to being environmentally responsible is something we take seriously and it is heavily considered in all areas of our business."

Single cup offerings are wasteful and harmful to our environment. In 2005, the United States Environmental Protection Agency reported that containers and packaging accounted for approximately 31% of total waste (Brenkert, 2008). This serves as a reminder to all companies, including Stickboy Coffee, that we are not only responsible for prepackaging, but after-purchase packaging as well. If you purchased those 228 single cup servings we mentioned earlier, you have created about 3 pounds of waste. If you purchased Stickboy Coffee’s 5 pound bag you have created 0.09 pounds of waste. In most states, our bags are recyclable and many of our customers reuse our coffee bag and this limits our environmental impact even more.

"Aside from the fact that single cup servings are expensive and wasteful, they compromise the quality of our craft which is handcrafted, freshly roasted coffee."

Stickboy Coffee has made a commitment to our customers to always provide freshly roasted coffee. Fresh coffee releases gas for weeks after it has been roasted. This process allows for the coffee to stay fresher, longer, while holding its great tasting flavor which is the exact purpose for our one-way valve bag system. The one-way valve technology allows the carbon dioxide to be released without allowing flavor-robbing oxygen to get in.

The single cup servings are packaged in tight containers that do little to save the flavor. Single cup servings are a result of mass production. At this moment, if you are purchasing single cup servings, your coffee is about 2-3 years old.

In closing, we encourage our customers to purchase reusable filters for their coffee makers if they own single cup coffee makers. Many of our customers have purchased the EkoBrew filter which can be found on Amazon or at a grocery store near you. It has saved our customers money and now they get to enjoy Stickboy Coffee's handcrafted and freshly roasted coffee as a single cup serving!


Sources used for this blog:
Baer, D., 2015. “The Keurig K-Cup's inventor says he feels bad that he made it — here's why” Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/k-cup-inventor-john-sylvans-regret-2015-3

Brenkert, G. (2008). Marketing Ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Evans, P.,2015. “K-Cup creator John Sylvan regrets inventing Keurig coffee pod system. 'I don't know why people have them in their house,' K-Cup inventor says of his device. Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/k-cup-creator-john-sylvan-regrets-inventing-keurig-coffee-pod-system-1.2982660

 


0 comments

Leave a comment