Table of ContentsTable of ContentsSetting the paceMore realistic optionsBetter or worse?Its all about valueThe next few months will completely redefine every ranking of the best graphics cards. With Nvidias RTX 50-series and AMDs RDNA 4 most likely launching in January and even Intel possibly expanding its Battlemage lineup theres a lot to look forward to.But as for me, I already know which GPU Im most excited about. And no, its not Nvidias rumored almighty RTX 5090. The GPU Im looking forward to is AMDs upcoming flagship, which will presumably be the RX 8800 XT. Below, Ill tell you why I think this GPU is going to be so important not just for AMD but also for the entire graphics card market.Recommended VideosJacob Roach / Digital TrendsGoing into RDNA 3, many people thought that wed see AMD compete against Nvidias top GPU. That didnt happen, and it almost certainly wont happen now. In fact, AMD is likely to be behind not just the RTX 5090 but also the RTX 5080.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming Thats not necessarily bad news. In fact, most leaks point to a GPU thats going to hit the sweet spot between high-end and budget; something capable of running new AAA games without being too overkill and Im all for that.RelatedIve been keeping a close eye on all sorts of leaks about the upcoming generation of AMD cards, and while specifics have been scarce, most tipsters are united in the idea that AMD is keeping things more mainstream this time around. AMD itself has said as much, despite comments from CEO Dr. Lisa Su who said that RDNA 4 will deliver a strong increase in gaming performance.Right now, everything we know about the RX 8000 series comes down to a few vague statements, some rumors, and a lot of guesses. But theres one thing I know for sure: These GPUs will set the pace not just for AMD but also for its rivals.Seeing the AMD flagship will dispel a lot of doubt from the get-go. Well know the direction AMDs GPU business is heading in, and just that one decision is bound to echo throughout the entire GPU market.We already know that AMD is making a bold decision by not trying to compete against Nvidias future flagship. Its sticking to midrange graphics cards, which means that RDNA 4 will be a whole new chapter for AMD. There will be no question as to which GPU will top the charts its going to be Nvidias RTX 5090, plain and simple.GPUs like the upcoming RTX 5090 are thrilling, thats true. Its hard to deny that its exciting to see a graphics card completely obliterate what we thought was unachievable just a few years ago. But how many people get these cards for gaming? Not that many. Its the mainstream market that gets the most traction.Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsYear after year, its GPUs along the likes of Nvidias RTX 3060 that top the charts in the Steam Hardware Survey, and thats largely because most of us have no use for top-shelf graphics cards and just want a daily driver that will be able to run recent games. One recent example of how a midrange card can really make all the difference is Intels Arc B580.On its own, the Arc B580 is a fairly unassuming GPU, with modest specs and performance close to the Nvidia RTX 4060. But when you add the $250 price tag to the equation, youre suddenly left with a graphics card that gives you a lot of GPU power at a reasonable price and gamers are buying out the card in record time.Circling back to AMD, the RDNA 3 generation of GPUs was a bit all over the place in terms of value. Although most of the GPUs were really solid, some of the pricing may have stunted their potential slightly.Take the RX 7900 XTX, for example. It launched at $1,000, which was $200 cheaper than its main competitor, the RTX 4080. But with similar rasterization capabilities, worse ray tracing, and no DLSS 3 frame generation, it wasnt quite enough to be considered a steal. Sure, it saved you $200, but it was still a pretty expensive GPU, all things considered.On the other hand, RDNA 3 offered some graphics cards that Id recommend to anyone, and thats because their price was just right. Take the RX 7800 XT or the RX 7900 GRE, for example, both of which offered a great blend of performance and reasonable pricing. Those were the GPUs that gamers turned to if they wanted a value-oriented build.In this new generation, where AMD itself says that its targeting the mainstream market, we might see a shift in the previous dynamic. Many people expect both the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 to be expensive; its easy to imagine that the RTX 5070 Ti wont be cheap, either. But if AMD manages to create a GPU that can offer comparable performance this time with better ray tracing and prices it competitively Well, we might have a similar situation to Intels B580 on our hands.With comparable options at lower price points, we might see gamers turning to AMD, allowing it to set the tone for the rest of the GPU market. With more competition, we might even see Nvidia adjust its pricing, if only just a little bit. If AMD can offer something truly competitive in the bracket where gamers are the most likely to buy it, Nvidia might begin to feel the heat and thatd be great news for us all.Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsWhat can we expect from the RX 8800 XT, if thats what itll end up being called? Will they be more competitive with Nvidia than AMDs current-gen cards?The words of AMD CEO Lisa Su sound promising, what with the strong performance increase. However, performance gain or not, were unlikely to see anything much stronger than the RX 7900 XT, at least in terms of specs likeVRAM or compute units (CUs). Even so, a slight increase in VRAM is not completely out of the question, as AMD is generally much more generous with memory capacity than Nvidia. Even the RX 7900 XT had 20GB, which is more than Nvidias $1,000 RTX 4080 Super, and just 4GB less than the ever-so-expensive RTX 4090.Im guessing that 16GB is an absolute minimum for the next-gen AMD flagship, but I could easily see 20GB or 24GB as a possibility too, and thats something to be excited about. Current AAA games really push VRAM requirements to the limit, making it so that 8GB GPUs tend to struggle with newer titles. One way or another, I expect AMDs RX 8800 XT to offer more VRAM than a comparable card from Nvidia.All in all, performance could end up being pretty great. Ive been keeping my expectations low after hearing that AMD is sitting out of the high-end race, but recent leaks have gotten my hopes up yet again.According to the most recent rumors, the RX 8800 XT may offer a performance comparable to Nvidias RTX 4080. That GPU is around the same level as the RX 7900 XTX in rasterization, and far ahead in ray tracing.Ray tracing is one area where AMD will reportedly have a better chance at success this time around. One leaker said that the ray tracing performance of the RX 8800 XT was up to 45% better than the RX 7900 XTX in Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, and thats a huge difference. On the other hand, its too soon to trust those numbers blindly RE 7 isnt very demanding when it comes to ray tracing, which makes it easier to handle for AMD GPUs than heavy-hitters like Cyberpunk 2077. Still, thats enough to at least show some hope.Even if the ray tracing predictions dont quite pan out, AMDs been clear on the fact that we can expect ray tracing improvements in its next-gen GPUs. If all goes well, we might get a replacement for the RTX 4080 with more VRAM, comparable ray tracing, and better value.Wait will it be of better value?Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsValue is an incredibly important part of the potential success of AMDs RX 8800 XT and the rest of the cards in the lineup (which right now might only include the RX 8600/XT). Intels recent Battlemage launch showed just how much performance per dollar matters in the mainstream market.Intels Arc Alchemist, its first generation of mainstream graphics cards, didnt receive anywhere near the same level of interest as Battlemage. In fact, the demand for these GPUs must have come as a shock both to Intel and to retailers, because its largely sold out right now.The warm reception that Battlemage received tells me that its clear that gamers are open to using something other than Nvidia. They just need a little push.The Nvidia bias is real, but for some, its fading. I was this close to choosing AMD when I built my current PC in late 2023. In fact, when AMD first announced RDNA 3, my plan was to finally ditch Nvidia and buy the RX 7900 XTX. I was genuinely excited about the card, and although the price was a little higher than I expected, I was ready to pull the trigger and go for it.But once the GPUs launched and the first reviews came in, I started to doubt my previous decision. The RX 7900 XTX simply didnt offer enough of a price cut versus the RTX 4080 for me to decide to give up on DLSS 3 and ray tracing. When youre spending over $1,000 on a GPU, you sort of expect to get it all, and the RX 7900 XTX while great in its own right does require some compromise. In the end, I ended up (almost begrudgingly) sticking with Nvidia.Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsIt all comes down to the fact that AMD was shooting for the moon with the RX 7900 XTX, but it was still Nvidia that landed closer to the target. As a result, many expected the 7900 XTX to be cheaper closer to the price it sells for now, which is $870. At that price, Id have bought it in a heartbeat.AMDs change of pace for RDNA 4 gives me hope that this situation may not repeat itself. Team Red shines at the midrange, with cards like the RX 7800 XT leading the charge against Nvidia, and if this is AMDs focus in 2025, the resulting price war might be great for both sides of the fence.Thats largely why Im so excited for the RX 8800 XT, as well as the rest of AMDs RDNA 4 lineup. Nvidias been dominating the GPU market; meanwhile, AMDs gaming business suffered some major losses in 2024. But theres a lot of potential here with AMDs new approach, and if the stars align, we might finally see a competition that spurs Nvidia to keep the prices reasonable.Yeah, I might be delusional if Im counting on some serious competition, given the market share difference between the two companies. But Ill stay delusional at least a little while longer, as both AMD and Nvidia will announce their new graphics cards in early January. Until then, let me dream.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsIts three-act structure is brilliantMichael Fassbender is remarkable at its centerIts honest about who Jobs wasDecember is, for many, a time for celebration and reflection. If youre lucky enough to have downtime during this busy season, you might be looking for the perfect movie to fill it with.One of the best ways to pick a movie on a service like Amazon Prime Video, which has so many to choose from, is to pick a movie that you know wont be there much longer. Thats exactly what weve done here.Steve Jobsis leaving Prime Video at the end of the month, and you should definitely make time for it before it does. The movie, which tells the story of the Apple founder in three chapters, is well worth your time. Heres why.Recommended VideosWe also have guides to the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu,the best movies on Max,andthe best movies on Disney+.RelatedSteve Jobs - Official Trailer 2| Danny Boyle | Michael Fassbender | 2015Steve Jobsis split into three sections, each chronicling the launch of a different product. The first chronicles the launch of the Macintosh, the second the launch of the NeXT computer, and the third the launch of the iMac. Each of these acts creates a high-tension atmosphere in which all of the most important people in Jobs life want something from him.The film plays out a bit like a stage play, but director Danny Boyle knows how to shoot it in a way that feels alive and dynamic. In jumping through time to three precise moments in Jobs life, the movie maintains a focus that many of these kinds of sprawling biopics totally lack.Universal PicturesThe movie would not work at all without Michael Fassbenders brilliant central performance as Jobs. The movie is ultimately about the mind of one of the most brilliant men in the history of computer technology, and Fassbender manages to capture all the ways that Jobs could captivate those around him, even as he also frustrated them with his own failings and shortcomings.The most surprising things aboutSteve Jobsmight be that, underneath it all, its a movie about a man who is way crueler to the people around him than he had to be. Fassbender was nominated for Best Actor for his performance, and after watching the movie, you can understand why.Universal PicturesThere are plenty of biopics about great men that valorize them, recognizing them for all that they contributed to the world. You could certainly make a movie about Steve Jobs that was about his triumphs. Whats much more interesting, though, and whatSteve Jobsdoes so well, is depict a version of the iconic Apple CEO that feels close to the truth.Jobs is a man obsessed with his work who demands perfection from everyone around him, and is also cruel to both his daughter and the people who work for and love him. He also did a lot of amazing things, and the reality is that both of those things are true.Steve Jobs is streaming on Amazon Prime Video until January 1, 2025.Editors Recommendations

Love them or hate them, but robotaxis have certainly been making headlines in 2024. And beyond the glamourous, sci-fi inspired marketing around Tesla recently unveiled Cybercab robotaxi, safety has remained, in one way or another, a recurring theme.Earlier this year, a survey revealed a majority of the U.S. public, or 68%, bring up safety concerns when asked what they thought about having self-driving vehicles (SDVs) on public roads. Yet within that majority, more than half either believe that SDVs safety issues can be addressed, or that SDVs will actually be safer than humans.Recommended VideosIts no wonder then that Alphabet-owned Waymo, which provides the only functioning robotaxi service in the U.S., devotes a lot of energy to addressing these concerns.Please enable Javascript to view this contentIn a just-released research study with insurance company Swiss Re, Waymo now says its Waymo Driver service demonstrates better safety performance metrics than human drivers.RelatedThe study compared insurance liability claims against Waymo to those brought against human drivers, based on Swiss Res data from over 500,000 claims and over 200 billion miles of exposure. Compared to humans, data for the Waymo Driver showed an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims.In real numbers, across 25.3 million miles already driven by the Waymo Driver, the service was involved in just nine property damage claims and two bodily injury claims. For the same distance, human drivers would be expected to have 78 property damage and 26 bodily injury claims, Swiss Re says.This analysis complements our safety impact data, which indicates that over 25 million fully autonomous miles, the Waymo Driver had fewer serious collisions than human drivers, independent of who was at fault, Waymo says on its blog.So far, Alphabet-owned Waymo has been the only robotaxi service operator able to convince U.S. regulators about the safety of its technology.On the other hand, General Motors-backed Cruise had to stop testing operations last year after one of its vehicles fatally struck a pedestrian. GM also recently announced it would stop funding Cruise altogether.As for Tesla, regulators have opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with its full-self driving software following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. Tesla still hopes to launch its Cybercab robotaxi as a service in 2025.Of course, Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to have a different approach than Waymo to tackle concerns about safety: Now that Musk has been freshly anointed to head a newly-created governmental agency, he seems to have convinced the incoming Trump administration to loosen regulations around self-driving vehicles, including the reporting of crashes.Editors Recommendations

Who would inherit Charlemagnes vast imperial lands? Trying to decide led to quarreling and warfareand the emergence of nationalities.

My birthday falls in the week between Christmas and New Year. Other celebrations always overshadowed my special day. My twins were born on December 23rd, and I often can't make their birth as special as I'd like. Growing up, I often gave my parents low-key guilt trips about my birthday. Being born in the week between Christmas and New Year's meant I never got to have a celebration at school and rarely had parties since my friends were usually out of town. While I understood at some level that my parents hadn't chosen that particular day on purpose, I carried a lingering resentment that I'd been born at the worst time of year.My day was overshadowed by other celebrationsMy "special" day always seemed to be overshadowed by the rest of the holiday season.I got over it eventually. As a young adult, I threw parties for myself in late January or spent the day hitting post-Christmas sales with friends. Sometimes, when days of nonstop family time had drained all my energy, it was a treat to gift myself a trip to the movies alone.While I eventually made peace with the situation, a holiday birthday was one family tradition I had no intention of handing down. After I got married and my new husband and I started talking about children, I was careful to make the nine-month calculations and ensure I didn't get pregnant in March.My first child, Clara, was born in early September, a date that came with its own issues but was well ahead of the holidays. But things weren't as straightforward when we started trying for a sibling. Eventually, I started IVF, and any attempts to time my next pregnancy went out the window. I was at the mercy of shots and cycles that were very much out of my control.My due date was in FebruaryThe first attempt at IVF didn't take, but a few months later, the second one did. Soon I found out I would be having twins in early February. Crisis averted! Or so I thought.Pregnancy being pregnancy and twins being twins, I should have known the due date was an estimate, not a guarantee. Throughout that fall, as I started coming to my doctor for more frequent checkups, she reminded me that twins tend to arrive early. After some signs of possible early labor, I was put on bedrest in early December. A few weeks later, I was moved to the hospital.And early on the morning of December 23, James and Alan arrived.My first emotion was overwhelming relief that they were healthy, and my second reaction was an overwhelming sense of guilt."I'm so sorry, little guys," I thought to myself. "I never wanted you to get stuck with a December birthday."The one consolation, I hoped, was the fact that they had a mother who could commiserate and help them make the best of it. I made sure their birthday was celebrated From their very first birthday, I made sure the day was its own distinct occasion, with balloons and streamers and cake. I discreetly suggested to well-meaning family members that it was better to buy the boys two separate, smaller gifts rather than a single, combined "Christmas/birthday" present. No matter what other holiday events were planned during that week, my boys got to choose whatever activity they wanted on their birthday and whatever kind of food. Christmas cheer would take a 24-hour pause.That doesn't mean my boys are any happier about their birthday timing than I used to be. They've missed birthday-at-school shoutouts; birthday sleepovers with friends have had to be pushed into January; and despite my best efforts, I'm often so busy doing last-minute shopping and baking that I don't always make the day as special as it could be.But I like to think this experience has taught my boys a lesson it took me a long time to learn. In a culture where people are constantly curating versions of themselves online, it's easy for children to think that anything they don't like about themselves can be airbrushed or exercised away.But there are certain things about your life you can't control. Getting pregnant is one of them. Having a healthy child is another. And if you've ever worried about either of those things, you quickly realize how little an actual birth date matters. The whole point of a birthday celebration is to make a person feel appreciated and special, to let them know they're loved. And you can do that any day of the year.

President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal.Trump blasted the "exorbitant" fees charged to US vessels using the canal.Panama has controlled the canal since 1999.President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal as he hit out at what he called the "exorbitant" fees charged to US ships traversing the passage.Panama charges tariffs for vessels traveling through the iconic waterway, with fees varying by size and purpose."The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding: "This complete 'rip-off' of our Country will immediately stop."The US transferred control of the canal to the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) in 1999 in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties."If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question," Trump continued in a separate post. "To the Officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly!"The roughly 80-kilometer (around 50 miles) canal was officially opened in 1914, offering a new link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.According to the PCA's website, between 13,000 and 14,000 ships use the waterway each year, "connecting 1,920 ports across 170 countries." The United States is the largest user of the canal.In 2023, a shipping company paid almost $4 million on top of regular fees to get through the Panama Canal following a logjam, Bloomberg reported.Japan's Eneos Group paid $3.98 million in an auction to jump the queue after a drought caused congestion, the report said.

After going on hiatus back in October, new episodes of One Piece start up again on April 6, 2025. The company broke the news during this weekends Jump Festa. Last we left off, the series was in the middle of the Egghead arc, and the flashy new preview shows things about to pop off as the Straw Hats prepare to smuggle Dr. Vegapunk off the titular islandright as the Marines are showing up to siege it. The second half of the arc will also move One Pieceto a new timeslot: Sunday nights at 11:15 PM JST. A new time isnt the only change cominggoing forward, the crews super!shipwright Franky will now be voiced by Subaru Kimura (who previously played young Buggy) in the Japanese dub. Frankys longtime actor Kazuki Yao announced his retirement in early December, and to make the transition official, he gave Kimura a pair of Frankys underwear onstage. In a statement,One Piececreator Eiichiro Oda thanked Yao for playing Franky for so long! No matter where you go, youll always be our nakama!! And Subara-san, Im looking forward to having you on board!!Oda also commented on this year marking the animes 25th anniversary, and gave his deepest gratitude to our large team of staff, and shouted out Netflixs live-action adaptation. Interestingly, he teased 2025 would see various projects and announcements forOne Piece; Netflixs show is getting a second season, and the streamer is also remaking the anime for newcomers. The franchise puts out a new film about every three years, so could a new film be on the horizon? Meanwhile, the mangas current Elbaph arc will see the arrival of a particular man, and more strife across the seas as that one guy begins shaking up the world. 2025 will be a SUUUUUUPER year of One Piece, says Odastarting with its anime coming back with Egghead Part II on April 6. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

The world has been waiting on pins and needles to find out whats happening with James Bond. Now that Daniel Craigs 007 story has been put to rest, thereve been some light rumblings on whats next for the super-spy. But it appears there may be no time to plan, after allor not while the Broccoli family is clashing with Amazon, at least. A new report from the Wall Street Journal alleges the relationship between the Broccolis and Amazon has collapsed since the latter bought MGM back in 2022. The outlet claims longtime Bond producer Barbara Broccoli doesnt trust the algorithm-centric Amazon with James Bond, so much she doesnt even want to make a movie with the company. (According to the WSJ, she reportedly bluntly told her friends the tech companys people are fucking idiots.) Things have basically hit a standstill with the new movie, and Broccoli allegedly said this past fall there was no script, no story, and no new Bond. The Broccolis have a pretty tightgrip on James Bond, and getting their approval to do anything with him can be tough. The WSJ report states Amazon executives were geeked to expand James Bond once it acquired MGM. Such ideas ranged from a Prime Video show to spinoffs for certain characters, or even a project headlined by a female 007. But the family (and Barbara in particular) maintain creative control over the franchise, and theyve no desire to make Bond into mere content, so those dreams were shut down. Theres also reportedly been pushback against who should play Bond in the future: sources told the WSJ that people of color, women, or gay men should be considered, and between those three, Barbara was more open to people of color or a gay man. Her thinking? Bond should always be a British man. You can read the full story here, which digs into Barbara Broccolis growth into the steward of James Bond and that strained relationship with Amazon. Its unclear where things go from here, or which party may end up backing down just to make a movie happenbut you have to assume James Bond will return eventually. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Frida Garza, Grist Published December 22, 2024 | Comments (0) | An assortment of Keurig K-cup pods Lester Balajadia/Shutterstock Theres a Keurig machine in some 40 million households in the U.S. Single-serve coffee brewing systems which allow consumers to make just one cup of coffee at a time by feeding a pod into a slot and pressing a button have soared in popularity since the early 2000s. Inevitably, this leads to a lot of trash. Every cup of java brewed creates a conundrum: what to do with the coffee pod that produced it. To start, can it be recycled? The answer, in Keurigs case, is not really. The companys single-use coffee pods also known as K-cups are made of polypropylene plastic, a material that experts warn is not as recyclable as consumers have been led to think. Two of the countrys largest recycling companies have said they do not accept K-cup pods, and one environmental group calculated that if you lined up all the K-cup pods in the worlds landfills side by side, they would comfortably circle the globe 10 times. A new coffee pod company claims to have developed a solution to Keurigs plastic waste problem. Cambio Roasters, which launched in September, offers a Keurig-compatible coffee pod thats made out of aluminum which, unlike plastic, is infinitely recyclable. Cambio is led by a team of former Keurig employees, including founder and CEO Kevin Hartley, who was previously a chief innovation officer at Keurig Green Mountain, as the company was formerly known. This is, in our view, the most exciting innovation in coffee since the K-cup, said Hartley during a launch-day press call for Cambio. Experts, however, arent sure that Cambio understands just how big of a problem K-cups pose to curbside recycling systems. Really, plastic is just not a good option, said Jeremy Pare, a visiting professor of business and environment at Duke Universitys Nicholas School of the Environment. But even aluminum, with all its benefits, is still going to have issues. Part of the difficulty of creating a truly recyclable packaging option for just about any consumer good is the severely fragmented nature of the American recycling landscape. There are over 10,000 recycling systems in the U.S., said Pare, who is also a member of the Plastic Pollution Working Group at Dukes Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. And yet, at the same time, only a quarter of the population has access to recycling in the U.S. (Pare lives in one such community with no formal recycling program, just outside of Augusta, Maine.) In the U.S., the question of whether something is recyclable can only accurately be answered on a local level. Another problem is the plastic composition of most K-cup pods. Sustainability concerns have followed the Keurig brand closely as it has scaled. (Once a small startup, Keurig was acquired by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in 2006; in 2018, Keurig Green Mountain merged with Dr Pepper Snapple to become Keurig Dr Pepper.) Keurig started selling K-cups pods made of polypropylene in 2016, with the goal of making 100 percent of K-cup pods recyclable by 2020. But the company has run into trouble for touting recyclability. In 2018, a California resident sued Keurig for claiming that K-cup pods could be recycled after the foil lid was removed and the coffee grounds were rinsed or dumped out which resulted in Keurig agreeing to pay $10 million in a class-action settlement. And in September of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Keurig for falsely claiming the pods can be effectively recycled. (Keurig settled the claim by agreeing to pay a $1.5 million penalty fee.) Hartley, who left Keurig in 2017, knew consumers wanted a plastic-free K-cup option and after years of prototypes and testing, he and his team settled on aluminum as an easier-to-recycle alternative. Aluminum is also impervious to oxygen, which causes coffee to lose its flavor over time. Whenever we brew a cup of coffee, it tastes exactly as the roastmaster intended, said Hartley. Cambio isnt the first single-serve coffee company to opt to ditch plastic or invest in circularity. Nespresso, a popular single-serve coffee company thats owned by the Nestl Group, has made its capsules out of aluminum for over 30 years. In 2020, Nespresso announced that its pods would be made of 80 percent recycled aluminum, and it claims its global recycling rate is 32 percent. But Nespresso pods only work in Nespresso machines. Because Cambio coffee pods are designed to work with Keurig models, Hartley hopes to give consumers what they want without having to buy a new brewer. Cambio also allows users to peel back the lid and dump out the grounds before recycling. Nespresso pod lids are difficult to remove, and the company instructs users to recycle their pods as is, grounds and all but theyre only approved for curbside recycling in New York City and Jersey City, where a designated recycling contractor cleans them out before reprocessing them. (Nespresso consumers can also mail used pods back to the manufacturer for recycling, or drop them off at Nespresso stores.) Unfortunately, swapping plastic for aluminum doesnt automatically solve K-cup pods recyclability crisis, experts say. What really prevents coffee pods, regardless of what theyre made of, from having a second life is their size. After collection, recyclables are sorted at a facility known as a materials recovery facility, or MRF. MRFs arent equipped to collect small items a common rule of thumb is that they cant handle anything smaller than a credit card and so small objects placed in recycling bins often wind up getting sent to landfills. The K-cups are so small that they fall through the machinery in many recycling facilities, said Pare. So other than separating coffee pods from the waste stream individually, theres no good way to recycle them. Cambios approach to working around this is two-pronged. First, the company says it wants consumers to stack used K-cup pods together and then pinch them closed to overcome many recycling facilities size requirements. Three or more used K-cup pods should create a piece of aluminum large enough to fit through the machinery at recycling facilities, says Hartley. (These instructions dont currently appear on Cambios packaging or website.) Cambio says it is also developing a device that will make this stacking and pinching of used K-cups easier. Think of this device as an easy way for consumers to bundle cups together and then toss into their recycling bin, said Hartley. He added that the company has filed for patents for second-generation Cambio pods that can be snapped together after use. Jan Dell, a chemical engineer and an environmental nonprofit founder, said, I dont think aluminum pods are a meaningful improvement, citing their small size as a barrier to being accepted and sorted via curbside recycling systems. Think of the pods like confetti: impossible to collect back up. Cambio disagreed with Dells characterization of the switch to aluminum, pointing out that currently, essentially no single-use plastic pods are recycled, whereas aluminum can be endlessly recycled. To Cambio and consumers, these two facts are meaningful. Hartley also shared that the work of ensuring Cambios compatibility with recycling programs across the country is ongoing. The company is planning to run tests with MRFs in specific markets as soon as feasible. In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson from Keurig Dr Pepper said, We know our consumers want simplicity and less waste. They shared that the company has been lightweighting our pods to reduce the amount of plastic used, as well as increasing options for recycling them, including a soon-to-be-launched program in which customers will be able to mail their used pods to Keurig for recycling. The spokesperson also said the company is continually exploring more sustainable packaging options. Dell leads the nonprofit The Last Beach Cleanup, which is focused on fighting plastic pollution. The ultimate solution to Keurigs plastic footprint, she said, is a product that eliminates the need to collect anything back from customers, like a fiber-based pod that can be composted along with the grounds. Keurig is currently testing a plant-based pod format that wont have any plastic or aluminum, and the company expects it to be certified compostable, according to the Keurig Dr Pepper spokesperson. Hartley said he worked on that product for many years, calling it an amazing innovation. But these coffee pucks, which are not yet available for sale, will require an entirely new machine to run. Its going to take a long time before America is going to throw away 40 or 50 million brewers and buy 40 or 50 million new brewers, said Hartley. He added, referring to his time with Keurig, I wont tell publicly how much money we spent to start from zero and have 50 million American households loving their Keurigs. But its a big lift, and it takes decades. In an interview with the Atlantic in 2015, the inventor of the K-cup said, I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it. As the market for single-serve coffee brewers grows, so will its impact on the environment, unless its products are somehow wildly reimagined and redesigned. Keurigs and Nespresso machines are marketed as both convenient and luxurious, a combination that is likely to keep drawing in new market segments. But eco-conscious coffee brewers can rest easy in the knowledge that you dont need a Keurig or Nespresso machine to brew one cup of coffee at a time; any coffee maker can be single-serve if you use only the water and coffee grounds you actually need. No pods required maybe just a filter. This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/why-its-so-hard-to-create-a-truly-recyclable-keurig-coffee-pod/.Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org. 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