Marijuana Adds to K-Cups’ Harshing the Environment’s Buzz
Ever spark up a blunt while brewing a strong cup of coffee and think, “Man, I could shave minutes off my morning routine if these two processes were combined”? Fear not, stoner friend: Thanks to Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop and its cannabis-infused coffee pods, your wake-and-bake-and-brew will be more convenient than ever.
“I liken it to a Red Bull and vodka,” Uncle Ike’s sales manager Jennifer Lanzador told Yahoo! Finance. “I had more energy, but I still had the relaxation you get from cannabis.”
“Catapult” pods sell for $10 each and contain 10 milligrams of THC, which has become the standard single serving for cannabis-based edibles.
Though the Catapult might be perfect for smokers on the go, marijuana and K-Cups both have negative environmental impacts to contend with before they can be considered totally chill. In 2014, 9.8 billion K-Cups were produced, and they’re all currently sitting in landfills. John Sylvan, the inventor of the K-Cup, has said he regrets having invented them. Although Keurig Green Mountain’s sustainability report indicates that it’s working to make the single-use containers fully recyclable by 2020, 95 percent of the single-serving coffee pods are currently made of nonrecyclable material.
RELATED: Your Pot Habit Is Contributing to a Guacamole Crisis
Because the marijuana industry is largely unregulated—and often illegal—water waste and pesticide abuse is rampant. Wildlife disease ecologist Gabriel Mourad told On Earth in 2012 that he once found 90 pounds of rodenticide at an abandoned facility in Northern California—enough to kill thousands of rats and mice. In March 2014, researchers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife published a study documenting marijuana growers illegally diverting entire streams to water their crops. Cannabis farmers in drought-stricken Northern California use, on average, 191,265 gallons of water per day.
So before you go drinking cup after cup of this new strange brew—consider Mother Nature, man.
Related stories on TakePart:
• 4-Year-Old Finds Marijuana Pipe in Burger King Kid’s Meal
• Congress Has a Chance to Make Marijuana the New Alcohol
• Why Sugar Might Be the Solution to All That K-Cup Waste
Original article from TakePart
