Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Re-Purposing: Disassembling a K-Cup

I have considered using junk objects and re-purposing them for other things. It's not something I do all the time nor is it something I broadcast. But I think it would be interesting to see what I can come up with. For this new project, I have decided to take a closer look at the Keurig Coffee Cups and see what I can come up with.

So I heard about these Keurig Coffee machines a while ago, single cup coffee makers that are decently popular at the moment. Almost every bank or business I walk into has one. But I heard there was some issues with these coffee makers because of their coffee containers called K-Cups. Plastic cup that holds inside a coffee filter connected to the walls of the plastic cup with a sticky adhesive and of course the coffee or drink mix sitting in the filter.  I know this because I took one apart.


I ended up using a fork to breach the plastic foil seal on the top, those suckers are AIR TIGHT and probably for good reason. but I was sort of surprised with how it looked inside. For some reason, I didn't expect to see a filter. Sort of stupid to think that in hindsight but I digress. The reason for this "operation" was to see the issue with why it might be difficult to recycle these cups as they are after use. Each piece separately can be placed in the proper recycling outlet but I don't find it likely that people would even bother taking them apart like I did to recycle them. Throwing them away would be much easier than dealing with the headache.

So I have been considering what can be done with these thin walled plastic cups. How could I re purpose them in lieu of just throwing them away and letting them take place in a landfill? Well, with a puncture hole on the bottom from being used for coffee, they can't retain liquids unless the bottom is fixed. (When you place a K-Cup in the machine, it punctures the top and the bottom of the cup to allow water to pass through) I'm considering my options with what the machine has already provided me.