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Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

economist.com

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Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#31

Post by numpad0 »

dawnerd wrote: post #28
seszett wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, drinking in a car is a very American thing and I don't think this would be a problem here. If this product works in most of the world but not the US, it would still be better than using plastic cups everywhere. Although paper cups are already common anyway.

People drink in their car all over the world, what makes it "very American"?

I don’t have stats to back me up but are they cup holders or drink holders? Because I think in many parts of the world people mainly put cans and bottles there, than paper cups.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#32

Post by INTPenis »

markvdb wrote: post #11

From the article: "Once used, these could be dumped in landfills with a clear conscience." Naturally biodegradable waste is not landfill material. A well-informed reporter not realising that shows how much work there still is to do. The EU single use plastic ban [0] is coming in July 20201. Is there any US equivalent yet? [0] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20190321IP...

This always irked me about my wonderful doggie poop bags. For 3 years I've been using Earth Rated bags made out of corn starch but they go into the same bin as all the plastic poop bags. So they literally drown in a sea of plastic because I don't want to just leave them by the road.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#33

Post by montebicyclelo »

dawnerd wrote: post #28
seszett wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, drinking in a car is a very American thing and I don't think this would be a problem here. If this product works in most of the world but not the US, it would still be better than using plastic cups everywhere. Although paper cups are already common anyway.

People drink in their car all over the world, what makes it "very American"?

> A drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word through), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was pioneered in the United States in the 1930s by Jordan Martin,but has since spread to other countries.

> In 1981, Max Hamburgers opened Northern Europe's first drive-in in Piteå.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-through

American infrastructure is built around cars, more so than many (/most?) other countries. Towns/cities in Europe are generally built to be walkable.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#34

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

disposablex wrote: post #27

Always love these disposable avenues of eating and drinking. Not sure if it started after seeing willy wonka eating a cup[0] he just drink out of or not. But I always remember reading an article about Indian food-carts serving tea in the morning[1][2]. They make really thin clay cups to serve it in. When you're done you smash the cup on the road when you're done. [0] https://twitter.com/omgfacts/status/88519807940163…

Clay is a non-renewable resource.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#35

Post by Steve44 »

adchari wrote: post #20
sfifs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all paper nowadays is made from managed forests (ie. Plantations) and paper is perfectly bio-degradable. So I'm not sure why it's a big problem. I use a mug because the 50c off pays off within a month and the mug keeps the coffee warm longer than the paper cup and no, the barista pours my coffee directly into the mug

The issue isn’t really the paper (although one can argue that any single use item isn’t ideal), paper coffee cups contain a thin layer of plastic on the inside to prevent leaking, which prevents them from being easily recycled or biodegrading naturally (which also isn’t possible in a landfill). A minority of recycling plants actually has the capability to separate the paper from the plastic, but this is not time or c…

In the UK we have the capability[1][2] to recycle all the traditional PE lined coffee cups we use here.

There are also quite a few collection services[3][4]. One of the challenges is separating the waste ready for recycling so having collection points in cafes, offices, and railway stations[5] is a really good start.

There are also some new cups with reduce the amount of plastic in a cup so that it's below the 5% contamination level fr general paper recycling. Personally I think this is not a solution as it's just gaming the system buy encouraging contamination of the waste stream.

[1] https://www.dssmith.com/recycling/insights/case-studies/case...

[2] https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/james-cropper-paper-m...

[3] https://thefirstmile.co.uk/service/coffee-cup-recycling

[4] https://www.veolia.co.uk/services/coffee-cup-recycling

[5] https://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/network-rail-introduces-c...

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#36

Post by kwhitefoot »

dawnerd wrote: post #28
seszett wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, drinking in a car is a very American thing and I don't think this would be a problem here. If this product works in most of the world but not the US, it would still be better than using plastic cups everywhere. Although paper cups are already common anyway.

People drink in their car all over the world, what makes it "very American"?

At least here in Norway it would be very unusual for a coffee cup to be left in the car and anyway many of those who do drink a lot of coffee on the go use a reusable cup bought from a petrol station that gives you a year of 'free' coffee. See https://www.circlek.no/koppen for instance.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#37

Post by Steve44 »

disposablex wrote: post #27

Always love these disposable avenues of eating and drinking. Not sure if it started after seeing willy wonka eating a cup[0] he just drink out of or not. But I always remember reading an article about Indian food-carts serving tea in the morning[1][2]. They make really thin clay cups to serve it in. When you're done you smash the cup on the road when you're done. [0] https://twitter.com/omgfacts/status/88519807940163…

> When you're done you smash the cup on the road when you're done.

Why would you ever want to encourage people to litter. We need to encourage people to be responsible and dispose of their waste correctly.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#38

Post by techsupporter »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #26
djrogers wrote: post #18

> They also found that when they made a cup out of the stuff and filled it with water heated almost to boiling point, the cup remained intact for more than two hours. Though this is not as long as a plastic cup would last (it would survive indefinitely) it is long enough for all practical purposes. Err, no. A disposable cup that leaks after 2 hours is a horrible product. Disposable cups are at their most useful in th…

We need more environmental tech, but we also have to adapt our behaviour a little bit. How can you make something that is degradable in an environmental friendly way, but also last forever? Something has to give.

> but we also have to adapt our behaviour a little bit

And this is what is largely holding us back. "Fear of loss" is a very big deal whenever you talk about large-scale modifications to a system with which people have grown very familiar.

People can always find a reason why a particular change "simply cannot work" or "is more trouble than it is worth" or "the benefits are not outweighed by the downsides" or "my use does is not compatible" and so on and so forth.

The spectrum is massive. From paper straws to "if you are able and if you live in a place where it is possible, look for ways to not drive so often," lots of people will be in a big hurry to tell you why that flatly cannot be done.

As someone who does transit advocacy in a dense city with good transit, it is very frustrating.

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#39

Post by paulintrognon »

Disposable items should be one of our most wanted enemies. What about reusable cups like mugs? You should then be expected to BYOC everywhere. Yes that would mean a lot of education and changes of mentallities and that's not going to happen anytime soon unless we pass laws for that kind of thing. And we totally should, IMHO.

(edit: removed the part in which I stated that burning bagasse is clean energy as I want the discussion to be focused on my first point)

Re: Better disposable coffee cups can be made with waste from sugar cane

#40

Post by em500 »

dawnerd wrote: post #28
seszett wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, drinking in a car is a very American thing and I don't think this would be a problem here. If this product works in most of the world but not the US, it would still be better than using plastic cups everywhere. Although paper cups are already common anyway.

People drink in their car all over the world, what makes it "very American"?

It probably happens more in America than elsewhere in the world. Simply because Americans probably spend more of their lives inside a car than people from other countries.
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