9 billion Keurig K-Cups likely ended up in landfills last year

When John Sylvan invented K-Cups in 1997, he knew they'd turn a profit. What he didn't anticipate was that 15 years later, a coffee pod machine would be sitting on the counters of an estimated 20 million American homes and Keurig Green Mountain would go on to sell more than 30 billion packs of the disposable coffee pods.

Disposable is the keyword there. To withstand the brewing process,