Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coffee Cups Are Next

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 447 posts

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#361

Post by yissp »

lsc wrote: post #282
scotty79 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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... That's not it. People don't drink tap water because they don't believe it's safe. People who don't drink tap water usually have no trouble drinking it after it's boiled. And non carbonated bottled water tastes just like tap water and you couldn't tell the two apart if t…

I am pretty sure that you could tell the difference between a brand of water that is distilled + minerals added and a brand of water that was not distilled in a blind taste test, especially if you drink mostly water. I think there are even pretty big differences, say, between the tap water in Santa Clara and the tap water in Milpitas, for example. I mean, If your argument is that bottled water is wasteful, I'm not di…

Santa Clara water is very hard, I definitely notice a day difference as well. I think Milpitas gets it's water from Hetch Hetchy which is apparently very high quality.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#362

Post by maccard »

bArray wrote: post #110
pg_bot wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've read the reusables have to be used ~70 times to be more environmentally friendly than the current disposables. 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.

> From what I've read the reusables have to be used ~70 > times to be more environmentally friendly than the current > disposables. Is this assuming it goes into landfill afterwards? Does it look better if you use something more easily recyclable? I think metal is a pretty good candidate: you can get it pretty thin, it's durable, keeps the coffee hot, light and easily cleaned. You just need to ensure that customers a…

> Is this assuming it goes into landfill afterwards? Does it look better if you use something more easily recyclable?

Yes, it does, and yes it does. However, getting the waste to the right place is also problematic. According to BBC[0] despite the fact that the cups are technically recyclable, lamost all of them end up in landfill anyway.

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43739043

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#363

Post by Steve44 »

snowwolf wrote: post #349
pg_bot wrote: 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…

Quite a few of the coffee shops I go to have started using these: https://www.vegware.com/biodegradable-hot-cups/cat_4.html The problem is that they require heat to activate the composting process, so need special bins that are sent to commercial composting centers, and there are none of those bins around, so they end up in regular garbage bins.

> so they end up in regular garbage bins

So is there any point in using them if they are not composted?

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#364

Post by scotty79 »

lazerwalker wrote: post #337
lsc wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure that you could tell the difference between a brand of water that is distilled + minerals added and a brand of water that was not distilled in a blind taste test, especially if you drink mostly water. I think there are even pretty big differences, say, between the tap water in Santa Clara and the tap water in Milpitas, for example. I mean, If your argument is that bottled water is wasteful, I'm not di…

I recall doing a science project in middle school where I did double-blind taste tests of tap water with a half-dozen brands of bottled water (in a place with decent-tasting tap water, FWIW). IIRC, people showed no statistically significant preference for Evian or other fancy bottled water over the local tap water. That isn't to say that there's no taste difference, but that preferring a specific brand of bottled wat…

Exactly my point. There are differences in taste and you recognize the taste of apecific brand or specific tap once you learn it.

But tastes vary so much that you couldn't tell random tap from random bottled.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#365

Post by Steve44 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #228
zeta0134 wrote: post #70

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 don’t think it’s that hard, we are well on the way in the UK. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43709656

> Some 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away annually in the UK, almost none of which are recycled because of their plastic lining.

That is woefully out of date. We now have the capacity to recycle all the disposable cups used in the UK. The collecting and sorting is where the effort needs to be put now.

https://www.dssmith.com/recycling/insights/coffee-cups-recyc...

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#366

Post by v3gas »

carlob wrote: post #294

As a European I really don't get take-out cups, in most Western Europe there are two options: either you have the 3 minutes it takes to sip on a cappuccino or hot tea, or you drink an espresso standing (both in a ceramic cup). If you see someone walking around with a pint of hot beverage, it's a safe bet they are American. I heard some American friend that it's part of American culture to control climate: drinks must…

You're forgetting regular black coffee. Which is pretty big in Scandinavia, at least.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#367

Post by truckerbill »

DanBC wrote: post #357
egeozcan wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually that people want to drink during their commute. I'm also living in Germany and I don't remember being given a plastic cup - they are always made out of paper, except their lids. I think they should just ban the lids. I also saw a lot of discounted price offers for people bringing their own containers in take-away coffee shops

The lids are easily recyclable. The paper cups have a plastic lining. They can be recycled, but not easily. Most recycling centres can't take them. As an end user it's really hard for me to know what to do: is this single use hard to recycle plastic environmentally worse than ceramic mugs being washed or plastic reusable cups being reused maybe dozens of times if we're lucky. Personally, I'd go for single use plastic…

Washing a ceramic mug is clearly the better choice environmentally-or bring your own reusable to-go cup.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#368

Post by Veen »

bsaul wrote: post #223
cstrat wrote: 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…

It is just as good as tap water when it is tap water.

https://www.ecowatch.com/bottled-water-sources-tap-253751064...

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#369

Post by Steve44 »

pg_bot wrote: 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…

> [0]: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/315159

That link isn’t about a manufacturer developing better cups, it is a retailer spending ten years deciding which type of cup to use. The cup they chose, as far as I can tell from that description, is a standard double-walled PE lined paper cup which has been in wide use for many years now.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#370

Post by parasubvert »

DanBC wrote: post #357
egeozcan wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually that people want to drink during their commute. I'm also living in Germany and I don't remember being given a plastic cup - they are always made out of paper, except their lids. I think they should just ban the lids. I also saw a lot of discounted price offers for people bringing their own containers in take-away coffee shops

The lids are easily recyclable. The paper cups have a plastic lining. They can be recycled, but not easily. Most recycling centres can't take them. As an end user it's really hard for me to know what to do: is this single use hard to recycle plastic environmentally worse than ceramic mugs being washed or plastic reusable cups being reused maybe dozens of times if we're lucky. Personally, I'd go for single use plastic…

Interestingly, where I live (Calgary Canada), our recycling program says that lids are not actually recyclable here because they’re too small and light to properly classify. This is more common than people realize.

http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/What-goes-where/Plastic-...

They have to be larger than 7.5cm in diameter, eg. yogurt lids. So we are told to trash coffee lids, along with metal or plastic bottle caps, which also are too small. Other programs like Recycle BC can handle coffee lids.

And then Toronto accepts White Starbucks lids, but rejects all black plastic (!). https://mobile.twitter.com/cityoftoronto/status/978967494470...

Whereas all paper and plastic cups ARE recyclable here (and in BC), and it’s common for shops like Starbucks to have recycling for cups. Presumably they’re classified and shipped to one of the few batch pulpers. Toronto on the other hand says they can’t recycle such cups

It can get confusing.

Post reply on HN