There was a time when I would buy a cup of coffee almost every day. Sometimes more than one cup per day, and it usually came in a paper cup. It really didn't feel like I was doing anything really bad. I mean, one paper cup won't hurt anything right? Unfortunately, there were millions of other people with my paper coffee cup habit thinking the same thing.
Here's the problem:
- In 2010, an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups will be used. It takes 9 million trees and enough energy to power 77,000 homes to make these cups.
- Paper coffee cups are lined with a plastic resin called polyethylene, so they can hold hot liquid. With this coating they cannot be recycled. All of these coffee cups end up in landfills.
- In the landfill the paper cups decompose and release methane, a greenhouse gas that traps even more heat than carbon dioxide.
- Most coffee cups are not made of recycled paper, as recycled paper is typically not strong enough to hold liquid.
Suddenly, my coffee has a bitter aftertaste.
My solution:
Well, for starters I'm going to make my coffee at home and drink it from a mug. I've been doing this for a while now to save time and money, and I enjoy it just as much. On the weekends, I will still treat myself to a fancy coffee, but I will do it in a reusable mug. One study found that I'll have to use my stainless steel mug 24 times for it to be more environmentally friendly than paper cups. That's 3 months of weekend coffees for me.
Here's a back of the napkin calculation on savings, because I LOVE to quantify things:
Money saved:
$624 per year
(Making my own coffee vs. 3 lattes and 2 coffees out per week)
Resources saved:
350 cups per year
140 pounds greenhouse gases per year
21.6 pounds of solid waste per year
My coffee habit alone will save one tree every seven years
Sources:
http://www.edf.org/documents/523_starbucks.pdf p.25.
Also see http://www.sustainabilityissexy.com/facts.html for more fascinating and terrifying figures
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