The debate about paper coffee cups

Back when I worked as a cook, every truckstop I wirked at, that did well (financially) gave free coffee to people that had their own mugs. When you break down the cost of making the coffee, back then (the last time I worked at a truck stop) it "boiled down to" (no pun intended) around THREE CENTS per cup, if they had their own cup. And if we supplied the cup it was FIVE CENTS, if it's one of the porcelyn cups and SIX & ONE-HALF CENTS if it's paper. Per cup. We made money by giving the coffee away. It attracted truckers. They love free coffee!

 

Coffee is such an environmentally unfriendly product to start with that worrying about the cup type seems almost hypocritical.

 

the problem is not coffee, a humble bush from ethiopia

it is us

hopefully you are doing your part by refusing to breed

 

Coffee growers have the perfect rebuttal for that. They provide millions of jobs. So I guess it's up to us end-users to do something about it.

You also have to take into consideration the energy used to wash the ceramic cups. Paper cups may look like the bigger evil, but they're more environment friendly. Provided of course that the coffee shops recycle them.

 

From the science side as asked:

I'm a chemical engineer and once when I was in school I did a study on the environmental impacts of styrofoam vs. paper cups. The study included the paper from trees, water to process paper, disposal vs. recycling, etc, etc, etc. It was very detailed for a graduate level chemical engineering class. The results were: It's a wash. The fact that styrofoam never biologically degrades didnt make a huge impact because as it turns out, most of what is landfilled is packed so tight and sealed from air, and thus never biodegrades either. It doesn't really answer the question here, but in my opinion I would ALWAYS prefer styrofoam to paper cups because I like them better!

 

I'll make do with picking up litter, thank you. :willy_nilly:

And bring on the babes! :ack2:

 

http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility

Did anybody in this thread actually investigate what Starbucks environmental policies are?
The company would appear to address every issue raised in this thread, working with farmers, recycling, discounts for bringing your own cup,etc.

I'm no fan of Starbucks, they charge way too much and your paying mostly for the name and "prestige" of the chain. But I was pretty certain they were considered an "environmentally friendly" company. According to the info on their website, they are.

What I did notice in this thread is yet once again a successful business model making money is automatically perceived by some as being evil and only interested in profits above all else.

Being successful and making a profit is not evil.
Let's stop with the knee-jerk reactions and actually research something before passing judgment.

 

My town has green bins for compost that paper coffee cups can go in. Even the food courts at the malls (and StarBucks) have seperate garbage bins for compost, garbage and recycling.

It's a start, but I think products that can't be recycled should not be produced, like the red beer cups the students so generously decorate the city with.

 

Starbucks seems like it's the only major chain coffee shop that doesn't supply their own porcelain mugs or glasses for folks who order their coffee "for here." Drinking coffee at a shop without taking it to go, only to throw the container away in the shop's garbage can seems more wasteful to me than it does to wash a clean glass out.

 

Anybody can write anything on a web page. The proof of Starbucks's apparent environmental-friendliness is in the doing, and I can assure you that it is all a lie, at least on the retail side. It doesn't matter if I specify that my order is "for here" or not, it comes in paper because (according to the staff) I didn't explicitly specify ceramicware.

It's probably not fair to single out Starbucks for this, as it seems to be a problem with Tim Hortons, Timothys, and the Second Cup. To my knowledge, however, both Starbucks and the Second Cup make claims about environmental responsibility on their websites. They do not respond to feedback about the utter falsity of it in the retail front lines.

In the case of the Second Cup, even if I specify a ceramic cup for my coffee, the pastry comes wrapped in a wrapper and inserted into a paper bag. Unreal.