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K-Cup recycling invention fuels Calgary business

CALGARY – They’re piling up in landfills across the country and have drawn the ire of environmentalists, but a Calgary business believes it has found a partial solution to the K-Cup dilemma.

Executive Mats Service has invented a process of taking the coffee grounds out of the single serving Keurig cups and then using the coffee as a fuel for the company’s boilers.

“Coffee has more BTU content per pound than wood does, so it makes an ideal fuel,” says owner Kim Caron.

For Caron, it makes good business sense, by recycling about 48,000 K-Cups a week, the company has cut its natural gas bill in half

WATCH: Satirical video portrays Keurig Cup as an alien invader – a monstrous environmental problem.

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Caron began experimenting with his patent- pending technology when he learned just how big the K-cups problem has become. Enough individual K-cup brewing pods were made last year to span the world 10 and a half times.

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“We can bury our head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist or look at ways to deal with the problem.”

Caron is now researching ways to remove the aluminum foil from the plastic so the entire K-cup can be recycled.

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