When I first looked into the topic of reusable coffee filters I didn’t think there would be much in it. But like nearly everything else in this complex consumer world we live in, I was mistaken.
In an earlier article I railed against the coffee industry. I stand by my words. The coffee industry is taking up far too many natural resources which would be much better employed actually growing food to feed the masses.
It is, however, hard to resist, the pick-me-up benefits early in the morning of a cup of real coffee. And assuming you are drinking shade grown, organic, fair trade coffee, the final environmentally friendly thing you can do is to use a reusable coffee filter. It is without doubt a bad thing to use standard paper disposable coffee filters. Oxygen producing trees are chopped down to make them; therefore, they can’t be good for the environment. Filters made from re-cycled are better, but they are not carbon neutral because energy went into pulping the old paper and producing the new filters.
At the moment, there are a lot of reusable coffee filters on the market. They are mostly made of plastic and wire mesh. They seem like a good product but they are not the best for two good reasons:
1) Plastic is a by-product of refining petroleum. Refineries pollute and plastics take up lots of valuable natural resources in their manufacture. The world is slowly but surely becoming buried in discarded plastic. Plastic materials are getting into our streams, rivers and oceans and killing marine life. No one can doubt the amazing versatility of plastic, but we should all cultivate a reluctance to buy plastic products.
2) Reusable filters using some type of metal or plastic mesh don’t make very good coffee. The reason is simple. The holes are not small enough so the water and coffee mix goes through the filter too quickly, leaving you with a really average cup of coffee.
The answer to these two problems is to use a hemp reusable cone coffee filter. It is compatible with nearly every coffee machine. It has much smaller holes than plastic and metal reusable coffee filters and so makes a really good cup of coffee. And it is made from hemp.
Despite its bad press, hemp could save the world if only governments gave it more of a chance. Hemp is the king of weeds because it is incredibly good for the environment. Firstly, it can grow just about anywhere. Secondly, hemp requires no herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or other biocides to flourish. Thirdly, hemp replenishes the soil with nutrients and nitrogen and helps prevent topsoil erosion. Fourthly, it is carbon negative – meaning it produces more oxygen while it grows than carbon if it is burnt (thus making it a perfect candidate for biomass fuel). And fifthly, hemp cleans the toxins in soil – it was used after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to remove radioactive elements from the soil.
The list could go on. However, I think I have made my point. Hemp is great and the hemp reusable cone coffee filter is by far the best and most environmentally friendly product to use when you have to have a cup of coffee.
