Hello:

jpender wrote: ... don't understand ...
... fail to see the point.

Maybe it is because you did not see my previous post:

CIV wrote: The estimated population in the US for 2019/20 is ~ 330 million and assuming an estimated 3.2 people per household, we're looking at ~ 103 million households.

Would it be acceptable to assume that at least one person in each household in the US drinks coffee and in doing so uses just one filter a day?

That would be 365 filters x 103 million in a year.
And at $0.10/filter ...

And this only in the US.
Even if you deem my estimations off by 50% it is still mind warping.

So, assuming my numbers are off by 50% ...

Can you imagine a pile of 18.797.500.000 used coffee filters?
Can you imagine a pile of 1.879.750.000 dollar bills?

See the point?

Cheers,

CIV

Sure, I see your point. Saving the planet one coffee filter at a time. I sort of doubt that's the most bang for the buck, conservation-wise.

I have gravitated to paper filters for two essential reasons. One is that they remove some of the coffee oils which have been linked to increased cholesterol and having had a heart attack I have to attach some importance to that. Two is that when my coffee is brewed I can fold over the filter, pick it up without making a mess, and toss it in the trash. Point number two is invaluable.

If the difference between my life and death is reusing a coffee filter, then give me death.

DamianWarS wrote: Regardless, crisis aside, It's still a practical solution even if your just running low, I've found 3 times for a filter is about what it can handle before it gets too choked with residue.

I read about boiling filters or doing a more thorough than a rinse wash, but I haven't tried it.

civ wrote:See the point?

No, I don't.

Compare typical coffee filter usage to typical paper usage. Some fraction of the population uses a paper coffee filter at home or indirectly by purchasing coffee that is paper filtered. Averaged over the population the per person consumption of coffee filter paper is going to be just a fraction of a gram per day.

Pretty much everybody (in the developed world) uses toilet paper, not to mention lots of other paper consumption (packaging, junk mail, newspapers, magazines, etc.). Just toilet paper alone is 100 times as much as coffee filters.

So coffee filter reuse is just a tiny little thing, way down the list. You'd do far better to stop using toilet paper (which is easy) and try your best to avoid buying things that are packaged (which is hard).


The point I do get is that obtaining filters might be a challenge for some people in some places right now. I'm stuck at home but I can hold my breath and go to the store. Or, failing that, I'm pretty sure I could order coffee filters and have them delivered. But if one couldn't do that then reuse makes sense... at least until one could switch to a truly reusable solution. Cloth filters. Or metal. Or unfiltered coffee.

bbobbert3 wrote:I read about boiling filters or doing a more thorough than a rinse wash, but I haven't tried it.

thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to use a filter until it get to clogged and try that out.

jpender wrote:The point I do get is that obtaining filters might be a challenge for some people in some places right now. I'm stuck at home but I can hold my breath and go to the store. Or, failing that, I'm pretty sure I could order coffee filters and have them delivered. But if one couldn't do that then reuse makes sense... at least until one could switch to a truly reusable solution. Cloth filters. Or metal. Or unfiltered coffee.

this is my original point as I am one of these people. But let's not get too judgy about people's reasons, the "why" is not the point of conversation but the "how".

I don't think any of us, except the moderators, get to decide the trajectory of a conversion. The "why" subject wasn't one that I started. It's a natural question.

I am curious and empathetic about your situation, about the situations that a lot of people are in. We have a shelter-in-place order but it's not as stringent as some places and, fortunately, things haven't gotten too bad here, at least not yet. We're healthy. We didn't lose our jobs.

Looking online I see I can order V60 filters. There's a three week wait but that's a minor thing.

Toilet paper? I'm not sure about that. I noticed empty shelves in the store last time I dared to shop. There was a time last year where I overdid it at the climbing gym after a long layoff. For the next several days my forearms were so sore that I couldn't hold the toilet paper with sufficient grip to use it. So after each visit to the toilet I just took a shower.

I think adaptation in the case of coffee brewing is very possible, as long as one can still find decent coffee beans.

Heard from a friend last night that he couldn't find unbleached Chemex filters. I'll be sending him a care package, I did some preliminary checking and it does appear that they are in short supply right now. Push come to shove, I can use my Kone filter with my Chemex(s).

I washed out and reused v60 filters before a few times when I ran out and was waiting to get a new order in.

About two times extra was all I could use a filter. I don't remember if it ripped or just got to where it didn't filter.