Coffee Cup Catastrophe

scleaver — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you’re like me, you drink a fair amount of coffee and throw the cups away without another thought. Well, according to Eat. Drink. Better. I should rethink my drink-and-toss practices: disposable coffee cups are responsible for taking more than 6.5 million trees each year, and in 2006, 16 billion (estimated) coffee cups were thrown away, creating 250 million-plus pounds of waste.

Starbucks has gotten a bad eco-rap lately (see the post In The Blue) and the international coffee Co hasn’t fully gotten behind this green issue either. In March, 2006, disposable cup with 10% postconsumer recycled fiber was introduced. But, 10% leaves lots of room for improvement, considering that Green Mountain Coffee uses cups made from cornstarches that are 100% renewable and Tully’s Coffee Corporation uses a compostable cup and collects used cups in stores to make sure they’re recycled or composted (from Eat. Drink. Better.).

Of course, the best way to avoid filling land fills with your used latte cups is to use a travel mug: ReusableBags.com has a BPA free, stainless steel model, and EcoProducts.com has a travel mug made entirely from corn. Whether you’re using recycled paper mugs or a corn-made travel version, bottoms up!

Photo from ReallyNatural.com.

In The Blue

scleaver — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:43:40 -0400

You want your barista’s latte spoon clean, sure, but recent news reports accuse Starbucks of wasting as many as six million gallons of water each day. All that water runs down the tap because of a company policy that requires stores to keep water running in the sink constantly, so germs don’t build up.

As Eat.Drink.Better. discussed, all that water would be enough to provide water for two million people in Namibia. In fact, “a single Starbucks tap left running for just over three minutes wastes the amount of water one African needs to survive for a day in drought conditions.”

And, as Eat.Drink.Better. points out, this isn’t just about wasting water, but about corporate responsibility—Starbucks owns Ethos Water that donates money to help water programs around the world and Starbucks itself touts environmentalism as a company policy.

If you want to avoid Starbucks next time you need a cup of coffee, try CoffeeShopFind.com or IndieCoffeeShops.com to find and add your own.

Photo from Big Marketing Blog.