Being built around such a popular drink, it's easy to fantasize how the coffee business can have a negative environmental impact; however, few citizen realize just the extent of the impact a cup or two of coffee can have. Most people, if at all, only think the certain things when thinking of how coffee affects the environment. Basically, these things comprise the waste produced by the vast amount of containers needed to get a drink into someone's hand. Of procedure this is an important consideration as there is a great deal of waste that ranges from the bag the beans come in all the way to the paper cups that are ordinarily used and discarded when selling the final product.
The environmental impact of coffee stretches even farther though. It goes all the way back to the plantations that grow the plants that supply the beans. Traditionally, coffee was grown in shaded areas meaning forests could be, and needed to be, maintained around the plants. This preserved or in case,granted a habitat and ecosystem for animals, insects and other plant life.
K Cup Coffee
In the 70's a lot of this was changed. For many reasons, sun-grown coffee farms were popularized. This enabled coffee to be produced in much larger quantities, but it resulted in a great deal of forests being destroyed. Making things worse were thrifty factors that left a lot of coffee plantations for broke after which they were destroyed in favor of urbanization.
No matter how the coffee is grown, a great deal of pollution is created plainly by processing the beans. In in the middle of the time the coffee is picked and the time the beans are roasted, the coffee beans have to be freed from their many outer layers and then washed. The whole process uses over a hundred liters of water for every kilogram of coffee.
Though there are varying methods of processing coffee, each results in at least some amount of polluted water. One popular method though, leaves most if not all of the needed water greatly polluted and dirty, not to mention extremely odorous. Then one must think how the processed coffee travels. The plants are grown and cultivated in only a few countries, but the quiz, for it is high in nearly every country. Being a product that is traded more than approximately any other, the environmental impact of plainly shipping it is staggering.
Lastly, one must think the leftover grounds. There are millions of cups of coffee served around the world every day, and each cup results in a indispensable amount of ground coffee that has to be thrown away. Thankfully there is a spirited side to a lot of this. New trade practices and consumer demands are resulting in a push for more environmentally sound practices. This means that in some cases, the less harmful methods of growing, harvesting and processing coffee beans are being favored.
Of course, every coffee drinker can do their own part to cut the environmental impacts of the coffee industry, if only a little. Beans can be bought in bulk and, when at a cafe, reusable cups can be used instead of paper cups. What's more, if you have a organery you can acquire your leftover coffee grounds and beyond doubt use them as fertilizer. Every little bit helps
Coffee and the Environment
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