The single-cup coffee pod has become a staple of satisfying people’s caffeine fix, but one local person couldn’t stomach the waste they produce anymore.

“I gave it up,” Travis Fehr said of his coffee pod usage.

The owner of Breathe Bikes collects Tassimo T-Discs and ships them free of charge to Terracycle, an Ontario-based recycling company.

Terracycle’s Tassimo Brigade program turns the discs, and the foil packaging they come in, into plastic products such as garbage cans, benches, watering cans and hard shells for coolers.

Tassimo provides a one cent donation for every T-Disc, and Fehr in turn is supplying that money to Merritt’s food bank.

He’s collected about $30 so far and plans to cut the first cheque to the charity once he makes the first $100.

Fehr’s downtown bike shop is one of just five drop-off locations the Tassimo Brigade program has in B.C.

There are 69 across Canada.

As a drop-off location, Fehr puts together a box weighing 50 pounds — the weight of approximately 1,400 coffee discs — before sending them to the recycling company.

Anywhere from two to six people drop off their T-Discs at his shop on a daily basis, Fehr said.

Fehr said it took a few months to collect his first 50-pound box, but now he is producing about one per month.

“I think we’re scratching the surface still at 50 pounds a month. I think we could easily double or triple that, and then you’re talking a substantial donation to the community every month,” Fehr said.

The person who operates a drop-off location chooses a school or non-profit organization to send the donations.

Fehr also said he’d like to implement a system where he gives the donation money to various charities.

He said his concern for the environment is the reason why he decided to find a way to recycle the coffee discs.

Because the coffee pods are made up of various materials, they won’t be recycled by municipalities because it is too costly to take them apart, and they are instead sent to landfills.

Although Terracycle also accepts Keurig K-Cups, Fehr doesn’t collect those as it costs at least $50 per box to ship them.

In neighbouring Kamloops, the Lafarge cement plant is using the K-Cup as an alternative fuel source — burning them as a substitute for coal.

Last year 9.8 billion K-Cups were sold worldwide.

When it comes to how Fehr gets his cup of joe, he uses a pot of coffee. He also has a single portion coffee maker — no disc required.