Our friends at TreeHugger have some info on the debate on the use of paper vs. styrofoam vs. ceramic:
In this story the ‘good guy’ ceramic cup wins hands down in the functional use category. Designed for a long, durable life it can be used for well over 3,000 slurping sessions. Whereas the other cups are intended for trivial single use. Thus their lightweight, non-durable, disposable construction means they can perform well, measured against the other environmental criteria.
We've created
Wow, this is amazing! Thanks for the tips. I’ll be sure to use the soda reusable cups, coffee, any drink I need, I will use some plastic cups and maybe reuse paper ones.
Hi,
Just saw the ep on paper cups on bliptv and wanted to ask why these aren’t recyclable. Here in Australia we recycle similar products such as milk and juice cartons, which I think are manufactured in the same way and are ubiquitous, so I’m a bit surprised that they’re not recycled where you are.
Theoretically, everything is recyclable, even us. Why not paper coffee cups?
Mooch
Great post!
If the economics don’t work, recycling efforts won’t either.
As our little contribution to make this economics of recycling more appealing, http://LivePaths.com blogs about people and companies that make money selling recycled or reused items, provide green services or help us reduce our dependency on non renewable resources.
excellent. yes! bring your mugs to the coffeehouse. *do*not* use plastic though…the plastic leaches wickedly with hot coffee in it. ceramic mugs are *abundant* at tag sales (garage sales, estate sales, boot sales, thrift stores…). and if you have stainless steel mugs around - even better, they also have travel lids and no ill health effects (neither does ceramic - as long as the glaze is lead free)
p.s. is this series available on itunes for subscription?
i dug around a bit more and found the itunes subscription information
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Cups : do you use them? at Real World Green, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
Paper cups used for hot items are not recyclable due to the material used to coat the inside of the cup to keep the hot liquid from leaking out.