Today, there is no way to compost or recycle the billions of disposable coffee cups used in the U.S. each year. It’s all due to a simple fact: the cups are lined with a petroleum-based plastic (polyethylene) to prevent leaking. But, finally, someone has invented a biodegradable coffee cup. The innovators are International Paper and Green Mountain Coffee. They’ve created a 100% biodegradable cup called the “Ecotainer”. The cup has a liner made from corn instead of petrochemicals. In a blind trial test of more than 5 million cups, not one customer noticed anything “different” about the corn-based cups from the regular variety.
Here’s some interesting coffee cup statistics:
“In 2005, Americans used and discarded 14.4 billion disposable paper cups for hot beverages. If put end-to-end, those cups would circle the earth 55 times. Based on anticipated growth of specialty coffees, that number will grow to 23 billion by 2010—enough to circle the globe 88 times. Based on hot cup usage in 2005, the petrochemicals used in the manufacture of those cups could have heated 8,300 homes for one year.”
I hope Starbucks and other coffee houses convert to these cups soon.
Via Groovy Green
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Try to compost these cups. They are not what they are made out to be. The true way to take them out of the land fill is to use a reusable cup or use a foam cup that is recycleable.
I hope this way to drink coffee will never arrive in Italy, where I live.
We don’t use plastic or paper cups for coffee, we have ceramic or sometimes glass cups washed and sterilized in dishwashers in every bar and restaurant. You drink in ceramic cups the american coffee too, in Italy. The only plastic cups are dispensed by coffee maker machines.
In Italy have enough pollution to avoid this way to drink hot drinks, so I hope we won’t never copy this idea.
Corn-based cups should replace soon all other paper and plastic cups!
Greetings to everybody!
I agree with Justin,
The question is not how to STOP filling our landfills, because we all know that WON’T happen. The question is how to reduce our waste, as to set a good example for our children. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is one of the most eco-friendly companies out there, one who looks to the future and does something about it! That cant be said about SWAG!
Keep doing what your doing GMCR. You rock!
The type of comments I loathe:
Those laden with sarcasm and green self-righteousness, and those that provide no alternative suggestion to the matter at hand. Worthless.
Justin
Great. Let’s continue to consume our way to a greener planet buy buying more disposable crap and filling up our landfills, biodegradable or not.
And now people can consume all they want, saving the planet just by tweaking their shopping habits without cutting back on all that consumption. Whopee. We’re saved.