The company credited with inventing the paper coffee filter is producing the first single-serve coffee pod that's completely recyclable.
Officials from Florida-based Melitta USA told WFTS-TV in Tampa that the company "can't make enough" of the pods at its New Jersey facility to match demand in the northeastern U.S. The company, whose global headquarters are in Germany, eventually plans to offer the product in other markets.
The single-serve coffee machines pioneered by Keurig are in about a third of American homes and bring in billions in revenue each year, but the K-Cup coffee-ground capsules that make the process so easy also produce huge amounts of waste.
Keurig co-founder John Sylvan told The Atlantic earlier this year that the machines are expensive and that the cups are practically impossible to recycle. He admitted he didn't own one and said, "I feel bad sometimes that I ever invented the K-Cup.”
Keurig, meanwhile, previously pledged to develop its own fully recyclable pod by 2020.
