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Coffee Cups Are Next

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Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#371

Post by vonmoltke »

maccard wrote: post #335
xorfish wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you spend $25'000 on bottled water? Where I'm from it costs 16.5 cents per liter. That includes a 2 cent tax for recycling the PET Bottle. $25'000 is more than you need in several lifetimes. But then again, tab water here is excellent and also cool. So I don't see a reason why I should transport bottled water. It is much more convenient and cheaper.

> How do you spend $25'000 on bottled water? Where I'm from it costs 16.5 cents per liter. That includes a 2 cent tax for recycling the PET Bottle. Many people drinking bottled water aren't drinking the cheapest in the supermarket - the recycling bin outside my flat is regularly filled with 1.5l evian bottles - they're £1 each in the local shop. At one bottle a day, that's ~35 person-years. Not common, but not insane…

> Many people drinking bottled water aren't drinking the cheapest in the supermarket - the recycling bin outside my flat is regularly filled with 1.5l evian bottles - they're £1 each in the local shop. At one bottle a day, that's ~35 person-years. Not common, but not insane.

Even given expensive name brand water, a $50 filter cartridge only lasts for six months. That's $3150 for the same period. $50 replacing $25,000 is not grounded in reality.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#372

Post by chronogram »

cstrat wrote: post #125
satori99 wrote: post #96

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.

Tap water here in the Netherlands is excellent, and I’d much prefer it over bottled water, but that’s only available in places where you’d take your jacket off: home, friends, work, school, hairdresser and the likes. If you’re going somewhere you can bring water or buy water in bottles, but I’ve never seen other ways of getting water.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#373

Post by vonmoltke »

kristopolous wrote: post #300
bubblewrap wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filters seem like a lot of hassle, though. You have to keep them clean and exchange them on a regular basis. I don't really trust that solution.

Many under-sink filtration systems last at least 10,000 gallons. They take 5 minutes max to replace. Are you saying that 5 minute task every few years is more work then manually lugging 10,000 gallons of water through say, 10,000 separate containers, carrying each one, opening them manually each time, tipping and pouring them, then discarding them? (that's the weight of about 25 cars) Not to be rude but I don't belie…

> Many under-sink filtration systems last at least 10,000 gallons.

Every filtration system I have owned needs to have the cartridges replaced every six months. What system has multi-year cartridges?

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#374

Post by TravelAndFood »

peteretep wrote: post #314
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 are missing: car culture

Yeah, good point, it would be great to see some stats on percentage of coffees bought in drive-throughs in America vs Europe.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#375

Post by bluGill »

mft_ wrote: post #295
scotty79 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office had a lot of ceramic cups that were taken by employees from the cabinet, used and left wherever in the kitchenette. There was one dedicated employee whose main job was to gather the cups and put them in the dishwasher and after they are cleaned, put them back in the cabinet. Dishwasher ran constantly and that employee kept kitchenette neat in between of cup handling. I think there were even two dishwashers…

Funnily enough, we just hit a similar issue. I'm part of an environmental group at my workplace, and one of our recent pilots was to get rid of single-use paper cups. It was crazy: despite ample clean ceramic cups being available --and indeed stacked on top of the coffee machine!-- many people defaulted to paper cups, sometimes to the tune of having 5-10 used paper cups on their desk at the end of a day. Anyway, one…

At my office there are signs around the coffee pot reminding everyone to bring their own reusable cup from home, the paper cups are for guest use. When they rolled this out everyone was given a nice cup (with the company logo of course). You are responsible for washing your own cup - dish soap is at the sink in the break room, or take it home.

Some people still use the provided cups instead of their own, but it helps.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#376

Post by novaRom »

flr03 wrote: post #319
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…

When I was living in France the concept of take away coffee was absurd to me, it's not really a thing except at Starbucks, but we don't have many. I was doing very well without it. Since I'm living in UK (Europe or not europe you decide :D), take away beverages are everywhere, and I'm myself guilty of asking for it sometimes. I remember a friend of mine from Perth trying to explain me why a specific model of car was…

>> Europe or not europe you decide

UK is part of European culture, economy, and history.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#377

Post by jlockfre »

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…

'as a European'

What are you talking about? I've lived in the UK my entire life and this is completely and utterly incorrect.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#378

Post by reubeniv »

exodus_de wrote: post #298
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…

Where the hell are you from "as a European"? In Germany you can get a take-out almost anywhere they sell coffee. Vending machines are ubiquitous. It's not just for "Americans". Having a coffee takes more than three minutes, especially if it's still hot. People don't necessarily have that kind of time in the morning. Or maybe they prefer to drink their coffee at a different place than where they purchased it.

seconded, it's pretty common in the UK to grab a take-out coffee too. When I worked in a bigger city it was sometimes a bit of a treat occasionally to grab one on the way to the office.

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#379

Post by bubblewrap »

Raidion wrote: post #359
bubblewrap wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not the 5 minutes, it is to remember doing it. Because if you don't remember it, you might get sick from bacteria growing in the filter.

Ask your favorite personal digital assistant to set a reminder and then swap it out using all the time you save not lugging bottled water home from the store.

Actually, I simply use unfiltered tap water. As for the reminder - I think in reality, it often isn't done. A reminder isn't a guarantee for it being done.

As it stands, I have trouble to descale the washing machine every six months.

I know that the simple table based filters (a can with a filter to filter 1 liter of water) are often not exchanged frequently enough.

Why introduce that risk unnecessarily?

Re: Coffee Cups Are Next

#380

Post by NeedMoreTea »

chronogram wrote: post #372
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.

Tap water here in the Netherlands is excellent, and I’d much prefer it over bottled water, but that’s only available in places where you’d take your jacket off: home, friends, work, school, hairdresser and the likes. If you’re going somewhere you can bring water or buy water in bottles, but I’ve never seen other ways of getting water.

That's one thing that's changed since my childhood.

As a kid, here in the UK, most schools, public buildings and towns (in the street) had drinking fountains. Most town centres, shopping areas, tourist spots etc had them. Quite often they had a way to fill a bottle too. In the eighties they died out, and you'll rarely to never see one today. Why? They certainly weren't unsafe.

Bottled water producers seem to have managed to put people off our overwhelmingly safe tap water and drinking fountains. Now tap is seen as second rate somehow. Put in a vending machine instead, etc. Drinking fountains in schools and streets are long gone.

So now everyone can buy a Coke or bottled water, complete with single use plastic, and we mistakenly call that progress. The same people seem fine using tap water for tea, ice, juice etc.

Yet another bit of progress that baffles me. :)

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