Live data from Hacker News

Coffee Cups Are Next

bloomberg.com

221–230 of 447 posts

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#221
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely interested in understanding what you have to say. It's difficult to understand though, since the only difference in our situations seems to be that you want to use plastic bags and I don't. I have a diagnosis of atypical cystic fibrosis. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you do not. Germ control is a really, really big thing in my life. It is very possible that we are all missing something integ…

A genuine question - can’t you buy a stack of plastic bags and just bring some of them with you? When they introduced the ban on plastic bags in my country, it was more a ban on supermarkets selling them alongside your normal purchase, but you still can buy a stack of a few hundred in speciality shops, and just use that. And if you forget to bring your own you can always buy the pristine reusable ones at a small cost…

One of the issues is that most disabled people are also poor. Their disability simultaneously imposes extra expenses and tends to limit earning capacity.

Most of the replies here are genuinely not interested in understanding the reasons this stuff is a hot button topic in disabled circles. I'm basically being grilled on the assumption that:

A. I'm too stupid to have thought of any obvious solutions being proposed here and this don't have actual legitimate reasons for my preferences.

B. I owe the entire world justification for my preferences.

C. I speak for and represent the entire disabled community on all topics, even ones I'm only passingly familiar with because they don't happen to be big issues for me in specific.

Bags aren't banned where I currently live. They are banned in California. I was living there at the time that they were banned. I was also homeless at the time. People are equally aggressively dismissive of comments I make about the bag ban being a burden on the poorest of the poor.

Poor people, disabled people and women seem to all be equally dismissed. And then folks just can't seem to understand the rage some folks in those populations feel about various things.

Which is like wow. Seriously?

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#222

A former workplace of mine mandated that no-one was allowed to use re-usable coffee mugs at all. This was done because of the mass of dirty, moldy cups that seemed to fill every kitchenette in a multi-floor building. The business was a media organization and it seemed to me like reporters were the worst culprits. The company provided styrofoam cups which were consumed at a enormous rate, and this was deemed to be a b…

Styrofoam cups...for coffee. I can't even. People rather use those than wash reusable ones? I find it fascinating.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#223
post #125

A former workplace of mine mandated that no-one was allowed to use re-usable coffee mugs at all. This was done because of the mass of dirty, moldy cups that seemed to fill every kitchenette in a multi-floor building. The business was a media organization and it seemed to me like reporters were the worst culprits. The company provided styrofoam cups which were consumed at a enormous rate, and this was deemed to be a b…

This just hurts to read... It is almost as bad as the somewhat inexplicable growth in bottled water in places where tap water is perfectly acceptable. In fact many of the branded bottles of water are not spring water but bottled tap water.

this story i keep hearing about tap water beeing just as good as bottle one is really starting to get on my nerves.

people don’t spend their money and carry huge loads of water bottles if they can have the equivalent for « free » at home. If they do it’s because the tap water infrastructure (as a whole, up to the kitchen’s tap) alter the taste and quality of the water badly enough, even in the cases where the original source is of comparable quality.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#224
Dopper. Bottle and cup two-in-one. I got two (both ltd. ed.). The 2nd one is larger and insulated, and holds warm liquid for 9 hours, cold for a day. Great if you want to bring your own (herbal) tea to work. (Can't drink too much coffee.)

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dry pasta likely cannot be made to hold up to a hot beverage though, can it?

It also undoubtedly alters the taste

Most of that is starch, which you can wash of by briefly putting the noodle in boiling water (a few seconds) and then washing under cold water for a minute or two, then letting it dry.

It could also be prevented by coating it in a wax, like Carnauba wax, which will hold stable at up to 80°C and is chemically friendly to water, so McDonalds and friends would only have to lower the temperature of their coffee a bit.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#226
post #223
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just hurts to read... It is almost as bad as the somewhat inexplicable growth in bottled water in places where tap water is perfectly acceptable. In fact many of the branded bottles of water are not spring water but bottled tap water.

this story i keep hearing about tap water beeing just as good as bottle one is really starting to get on my nerves. people don’t spend their money and carry huge loads of water bottles if they can have the equivalent for « free » at home. If they do it’s because the tap water infrastructure (as a whole, up to the kitchen’s tap) alter the taste and quality of the water badly enough, even in the cases where the origina…

Then put a $50 filter at the tap and you're good for probably $25,000 of bottled water.

It's marketing that drives the preference. That's why most chronic bottled water drinkers I know surround their life with other bullshit irrelevant products. It's the same mechanics

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#228
post #55

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 don’t think it’s that hard, we are well on the way in the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43709656

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bought mulled red wine (gluewine sp?) in a christmas market in Germany this last winter. They sell you a proper coffee-type-mug to drink it from, for 6 euros (about US$7), which you can return when you're done and they'll refund you. I kept mine, it's a nice souvenir of Cologne and I drink my coffee from it every morning :) If you had to pay, say $10 for a proper coffee mug to have your take-away coffee in, but the…

They most of the time dont actually sell those mugs, the 6€ are a deposit.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#230
post #223
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just hurts to read... It is almost as bad as the somewhat inexplicable growth in bottled water in places where tap water is perfectly acceptable. In fact many of the branded bottles of water are not spring water but bottled tap water.

this story i keep hearing about tap water beeing just as good as bottle one is really starting to get on my nerves. people don’t spend their money and carry huge loads of water bottles if they can have the equivalent for « free » at home. If they do it’s because the tap water infrastructure (as a whole, up to the kitchen’s tap) alter the taste and quality of the water badly enough, even in the cases where the origina…

Plenty of people do it out of laziness or perception of quality.
Post reply on HN