A rant at… Kenco

Ok, I am a coffee lover, a complete and dedicatyed lover of the holy bean

Which means, 90% of the time, I don’t drink instant coffee. Because it is an abomination and a sin

But sometimes you need coffee and you need coffee now damn it and I’m not waiting for the perculator to sort itself out before I can have a drink when I can boil a kettle and have an emergency cup of ye-gods-this-is-not-coffee while I wait for my oh-thank-all-that-is-holy-for-the-blessed-beverage to be made.

So we have an emergency stock of kenco in the cupboard – it being the instant not!coffee that is the closest to being actually drinkable of all the brands (Nescafe? You should be shot. Somewhere where you will bleed slowly).

Now, Kenco comes in a BIIIIIIIG glass jar of 200g of coffeeish granules. It costs £3.00

Or you can get the new packet they’ve advertised – a refill packet which they are heavioly advertising as environmentally friendly – 97% less packaging! They even call it the “ec0-refill”.

See? Environmental! Good for the environment! Isn’t that wonderful?

Except the refil pack holds 150g.  And costs £3.58

Did you see what they did there? 200g jar for £3.00 (of recyclable glass no less) Or 150g Eco-refill pack for £3.58.

Yeah. My not amused face, I’m wearing it

And this hacks me off so much not just because of the blatant rip off – it’s a rip off using “green language.” And that hacks me off because every corporation and even government is doing it. We can slap “green” on anything with precious little standards, even oil companies do it! And governments will spout green and environment while inevitably talking about tax rises.

Will being environmental cost more than being inefficient, wasteful and polluting? Yes, it will. But be clear about that. If we’re going to have green taxes then ear mark the money to go for environmental transfers and research. If you’re going to have green products, don’t try to con us that it costs, what, the best part of a pound more to  put coffee in a plastic wallet rather than a glass jar.

Because that is the narriative now. Green = rip off. Green = someone’s pulling a fast one. Y’know what? I think, even cynical me, that most people in the county DO want to do something about the environment. Oh, they’re too lazy too most of the time and too short sighted too the rest – but no small amount of damage is being done to that already limited and conditional will by governments and corporations exploiting that wish to make money

We do not want or need people to think that “environment” means “another con job”.