Help! I'm Addicted to K Cups

I like to think I'm a good person and at least a pale shade of green.  My recycling trash container is always much fuller than than the one that contains, well, trash.  I buy recyled, local, organic, advocate for sustainable solutions at the architectural office I work at.  I know what Cradle to Cradle is, unplug electrical things when I can and when they aren't needed....

I really really try to be a good person.

But my partner's daughter gave him a Keurig coffee maker for Christmas.

Now, you first have to understand--we really enjoy coffee and drink it morning, noon, and night.  When we first got together I did have to teach him that grocery store brand ground coffee made into pale brown water is NOT coffee.  I introduced him to the coffee grinder and Trader Joe's Organic, Shade-Grown, Fair Traded Coffee.  (It's the way I salvage my guilt over what I know can be an exploitive, environment destroying, high pesticide product.)

 

And then the Keurig showed up.  And I mocked it--who know what kind of coffee really was in those little plastic K cups?  I mean--PLASTIC?  And they don't recycle.

Then we had the first cup of dark roast.

"OK," we agreed, "Not bad for when you just want a cup.  Or for company."  Quick, easy, flavorful, and kinda fun--all the buttons, the hissing noise, and the pretty blue lights.

Nice on occasion , we agreed.

The first hit was just experimental.  Why would we abandon our old coffee maker which held so many cups and could be programed to have a full pot ready before we got out of bed?
In the next few days we blew through the samples that had come with the Keurig like a politician grabbing face time on TV.  No limits.

Then--the supply was running low.  Panic set in.  Where do you go to get more--who's your connection?
Turns out Costco carries a big box of 80 of Newman's Own for $33.00.

I brought it home.  John added up the cost and gave me THE LOOK.  "Do you realize how much this costs a cup?"  No.  He told me. I just could not keep the number in mind; it always drifted away.

Besides, while not cheaper that making a pot, well, you know, sometimes we didn't actually drink the whole pot  and then we wastefully poured it out. And the Keurig brew is certainly cheaper than Starbucks and their ilk.

I try not to look at the old coffee maker which seems to be lonely and saddened, asking what did I do wrong?  It doesn't seem to be buying, "It's not you, it's me."

I don't even tell myself I can quit anytime.  Turns out we ALWAYS want only one cup.
Really.

We pretend that pile of little plastic cups in the trash does not exist.  And--after all--it is Newman's Own: organic and fair traded.  The Newmans are very environmentally aware you know.

Now I'm wishing we had a Keurig at work.

I know I need help.

Is there a support group out there for me?

We could have coffee.