71–80 of 447 posts
Maybe Berkeley should spend this energy in fixing its homelessness, crime and housing issues rather than pointless environmental virtue signaling.
You can care about two things (or even more)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is paper the first choice? The obvious choice I think is something that doesn't need to go to the garbage immediately but something re-usable such as metal straws or wood straws.
Our company cafeteria has metal straws for sale for 50 cents, and a thing to wash them out with. Works pretty well other than getting the ocasional sideways question about what the metal straw I keep in my bag is for.
Hygienic issues are the main concern I have with metal straws (e.g. when cafes have them for reuse). I'm assuming the one sold to you came with something like a pipe brush to run through it.
For public locations it's really going to be on the staff to clean this thoroughly as I doubt a dishwasher is going to be enough.
Wood for me would be worse in this regard, more opportunities for things to get stuck on them (or soak into the wood if lacquer fails)
What about returning refillable standard cups ? You return them dirty, starbucks/mac do wash them and everytime you want a coffee you get a clean one. It existed in France for glass bottles in the last century, it's still like that in Belgium for beers (and works very well). I don't see any problem to apply it for coffee. You can even think of little stickers of the brand from where you get your coffee, those sticker…
This will not happen; each firm will benefit from only accepting their own proprietary cups. Also, what about sizes?
If you don't think the people who work at these companies care about making better cups, read the following article.[0] There is a big opportunity for making a better disposable cup, but there are many engineering hurdles to jump over. - The cup has to retail for 17 cents. - It has to support a lid that is resealable. - It has to tip over and not spill. - It has to handle high temperatures. - It can't alter the taste…
It's worth pointing out that the obvious alternative, reusable to-go cups, need to solve an additional set of challenges: - Must NOT violate sanitization of the work area; cups provided by customers should not pose any health risks to workers or other customers. - Should be durable enough to survive repeated visits - Either the reusable cup must conform to a standard size, baristas need a way to measure liquids consi…
I think the easiest win would be designating between sit down and take out customers. Sit down customers could be given porcelain or some other washable container. However this would increase labor costs for businesses so you don't automatically get a free win.
Maybe charge a $5 or $10 cup deposit?
What about returning refillable standard cups ? You return them dirty, starbucks/mac do wash them and everytime you want a coffee you get a clean one. It existed in France for glass bottles in the last century, it's still like that in Belgium for beers (and works very well). I don't see any problem to apply it for coffee. You can even think of little stickers of the brand from where you get your coffee, those sticker…
Surely plastic waste is a local problem for only some places? America has no shortage of empty land for landfills, but perhaps India or Singapore has more of a struggle to put it all somewhere. I live in a country with plenty of wasteland close to my city, and the landfills are well managed to prevent leaching, but people are still really passionate about not using them for plastic. Nobody seems to be able to explain…
It's probably caused by us in part. The US ships a huge amount of trash to Asia. [1] In fact, recycling as we know it in many places in the US only works by shipping it to Asia. For example, my city had problems when China created new recycling processing rules, which altered the economics of its recycling program. [2]
Its been shown that shipping this stuff over the Pacific isn't a totally clean process. When trash goes to Asian countries, it can fall off the container ships. And the receiving country doesn't have any standards on processing. Impurities can be tossed to the ocean with the country's regular garbage. But yes, Asian countries count for the lion's share of trash in the Pacific. [3]
[1] https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/05/plastic-waste-ch...
[2] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Can-sputte...
What about returning refillable standard cups ? You return them dirty, starbucks/mac do wash them and everytime you want a coffee you get a clean one. It existed in France for glass bottles in the last century, it's still like that in Belgium for beers (and works very well). I don't see any problem to apply it for coffee. You can even think of little stickers of the brand from where you get your coffee, those sticker…
What about returning refillable standard cups ? You return them dirty, starbucks/mac do wash them and everytime you want a coffee you get a clean one. It existed in France for glass bottles in the last century, it's still like that in Belgium for beers (and works very well). I don't see any problem to apply it for coffee. You can even think of little stickers of the brand from where you get your coffee, those sticker…
What about returning refillable standard cups ? You return them dirty, starbucks/mac do wash them and everytime you want a coffee you get a clean one. It existed in France for glass bottles in the last century, it's still like that in Belgium for beers (and works very well). I don't see any problem to apply it for coffee. You can even think of little stickers of the brand from where you get your coffee, those sticker…