What’s better for the environment? I always thought reusable was better because you don’t add to the landfills, but it takes a lot of water to clean them. We’ve been in a long drought here and I feel guilty every time I clean mine. What’s the Dope?
What kind of filter do you have that’s hard to clean? I have the #4 cone style reusuable that came with my coffee maker and it doesn’t take any more water to clean it than to rinse a glass. I just dump the grounds out in the garbage, rinse it out and use it again.
Disposable. I’ve tried several kinds reusable filters over the years, but IMO, they don’t filter enough and the coffee tastes bitter.
The exception is a French press, but since I managed to break two of those in six months, I’m back to feckless, irresponsible, unenlightened, throw-away paper cones.
I think if in your area there is a water shortage the most pressing need is to save water so you should use a disposable filter. Get unbleached if you want to use the least damaging paper filter.
Another thing to rethink is the belief that just because something doesn’t go into a landfill it is a more earth friendly option (eventually the reusable filter will also go to the landfill and it has quite a bit of plastic on it). You also have to consider what it takes to collect materials, manufacture, transport and maintain each item. It could be very possible that the paper filters are more earth friendly anyway.
If you want to help the environment even more, use the old coffee grounds & filter more than once. 
It’s a basket filter and I have to rinse it for at least 2 or 3 minutes to get it clean.
I do that if I’m making another pot in the same day. It’s funny how no one at your office even noticed and then they got all outraged when they knew.
I don’t think landfills are a problem, since I compost my grounds and disposable filters, and they compost quite nicely. I think there could be an argument about the energy required to make them and transport them.
We tried the reusable one for a while, and it was far from satisfactory - in taste and in getting grounds in the coffee.
Disposable > Organic coffee grounds and biodegradable paper. What’s the issue here again?
Them not noticing doesn’t make your actions right. :dubious: People want fresh coffee, not some old fungied filter and grounds in the next brew. Do yourself and your office mates a favor, and make a fresh batch of coffee. I suppose you’d take left over booty water from beer bottles and recycle it back into the keg, wouldn’t you? Gross huh?
Wouldn’t reused coffee grounds release a lot less caffeine to the second batch? And isn’t caffeine the whole point of drinking coffee? No wonder the were pisto. “Don’t mellow my harsh, bro!” 
French Press
okay, limiting myself to the options in the OP, it depends on what you want
do you want great-tasting coffee and can put up with the inconvenience of cleaning? then go with the reusable filter
do you want easy clean-up at the expense of the subtle flavors of coffee? disposable filter
I’ve tried coffee prepared all three ways, and in order of flavor, best to least, it goes like this ; French Press> Reusable filter> paper filter
the reasoning behind it is simple, coffee contains aromatic oils and other compounds that influence the flavour and give it “body” and “mouthfeel” (to borrow terminology from the insuffrable Wine Snot crowd, i mean, what’s the big deal with fermented (spoiled) grape juice anyway…)
when you use a FP or reusable filter, those oils and compounds are retained within the coffee, and make it taste better, when you use a paper filter, the paper absorbs the oils and aromatics, leaving behind the bitter compounds, and making it more watery
another reason that FPs are better is that all the coffee grounds are in contact with the water for the entire time of brewing, in a drip machine, at the beginning of the brew cycle, water runs through the dry grounds rapidly, under-extracting the coffee, making it weak and watery, as the grounds swell with water, it slows down and begins to brew properly, as the grounds swell even more, the water slows down further, over-extracting the coffee and making it bitter
even with a reusable filter, a drip machine still has to deal with the under/overextraction issue, with a FP, you push down the screen and pour the coffee when it’s ready, no over or underextracting
no, really, I’m not a coffee snob, I just like sciency stuff, and making coffee in a FP has that vaguely “mad scientist mixing stuff in a beaker” feel to it…
Fools, I’ll show them ALL!, they laughed at me before, now it is I…sorry, went a little mad there, carry on…
and as far as environmental impact goes, are you really drinking that much coffee??
I’d imagine it’d be a draw as far as environmental impact goes, the waste of a paper filter vs. increased water consumption, i’d lean towards the reusable having a marginally higher waste in water consumption