MMMM your morning coffee, your cupa joe, your java.  Can’t beat it and stopping at your local coffee shop is a GREAT treat for many and a required fix for some.  Over at WiseBread, Nora Dunn speaks about the problems and a GREAT solution for disposable coffee cups. I agree with her whole heartedly and her solution is great.  Her mention of 10% recycled cups as being a slow movement in the right direction by a company got me thinking.  But really is that 10% recycled cup that great for the environment?

Read More Below...

Since it’s disposable you get 1 use if you’re most people and not many more even if you REALLY want to reuse it.  More often then not people don’t have a recycle your coffee cup bin and the recycling process is ended and another cup goes to the landfill.  Take into consideration the impact of recycling has on the environment.  The chemical waste, energy consumed for processing, energy used for transport of recyclable material all go into bringing you that little printed 10% on the cup that more than likely will never be re-recycled.

If you do a comparison of the impact of a non-recycled up verses a recycled cup when you understand a bit more of the process you get a startling discovery.

Non-Recycled Cup 10% Recycled
Deforestation/Farming/Transportation of New Materials Deforestation/Farming/Transportation of New Materials (reduced 10%)
  Transportation of Recyclable materials
  Energy use and waste for Processing of Recyclable Materials
Cup Manufacture Cup Manufacture
Transport/Storage of Finished Cup Transport/Storage of Finished Cup
Cup In Trash Cup In Trash

So at the end of the day you STILL have a cup in the trash and in some cases an even worse situation by a lulled consumer base thinking that it’s a little more OK to be a disposable consumer.

Nora was right in her Coffee Cup Revolution.  Use your mug and if they wont fill it find another place.   There are some logical arguments you can give that reluctant shop owner if they won’t fill your mug.

  • If there is a question of mug size, ask them to measure it and then you can write on the mug what size it is.  Often insulted cups and mugs have the size on the bottom.
  • Don’t expect or ask for a discount for the mug.  If you’re already on an uphill battle don’t add more to your load.
  • Explain that if they let you use a mug then they have saved a cup.  And that means more profit.  The majority of cost for a simple cup of coffee and most other beverages  is the container NOT the  beverage itself.   So allowing customers to use their own cups makes THEM money.

So everyone Reuse Reuse Reuse.  Recycling while not a bad thing  is often nothing more than a commercial and political puppet to lull consumers and voters into buying and consuming more.  Nora you have it right.