Single-cup trash pileup

The single-cup brewing craze sweeping the coffee-drinking world is resulting in a massive amount of unrecyclable waste piling up in United States landfills.

Peet’s Coffee & Tea is the latest company to get on the lucrative single-cup bandwagon, joining such big names in coffee as Starbucks and single-cup coffee-maker firm Keurig, according to the East Bay Express. The plastic and aluminum-foil waste created by the little single-use “pods” (pictured), which are too small to be processed in most recycling facilities, is estimated to be approximately 966 million pounds per year nationwide.

“We’re filling up our landfills with materials we should be using more wisely,” said Darby Hoover, a senior resource specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s a trend of disassociating more and more from the consequences of using a product.”