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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

#71

Post by Steve44 »

nicoburns wrote: post #66
contingencies wrote: post #57

Currently purchasing a full plastics thermoforming line. Not a chemist, but AFAIK current market available 'biostarch polymers' (AFAIK always PLA; which may be marketed as made from corn, sugar cane, etc.) are actually extremely environmentally unfriendly because of the massive embodied energy required to create the industry-ready polymer from the bio-waste material. Their single benefit is nominal biodegradability.…

It won't necessarily take a technology shift. Single-use containers could also be legislated against. And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place.

> And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place.

That isn't as straightforward as it seems, they are returning what is a contaminated waste product. That needs to be kept very separate from the clean food-grade food & packaging deliveries, you can't just chuck a bag of waste in the delivery vehicles.

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

#72

Post by nicoburns »

intricatedetail wrote: post #51

Has anyone successfuly quit coffee? I quit cigarettes, alcohol but tried many times to quit coffee and just can't. I feel so terrible it feels it gets worse every day I don't drink, then a little cup of espresso fixes everything.

It typically takes me 2-3 weeks to not miss it. And that's after tapering down consumption. It's definitely doable.

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

#73

Post by jlg23 »

nicoburns wrote: post #66
contingencies wrote: post #57

Currently purchasing a full plastics thermoforming line. Not a chemist, but AFAIK current market available 'biostarch polymers' (AFAIK always PLA; which may be marketed as made from corn, sugar cane, etc.) are actually extremely environmentally unfriendly because of the massive embodied energy required to create the industry-ready polymer from the bio-waste material. Their single benefit is nominal biodegradability.…

It won't necessarily take a technology shift. Single-use containers could also be legislated against. And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place.

Or simply start by re-legalizing re-usable containers with some tax breaks to provide an incentive for stores to invest into the technology to fill containers brought by customers while respecting food safety.

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

#74

Post by Angostura »

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…

I'm not sure existing paper cups would fair much better, would they?

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

#75

Post by m463 »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #65
contingencies wrote: post #57

Currently purchasing a full plastics thermoforming line. Not a chemist, but AFAIK current market available 'biostarch polymers' (AFAIK always PLA; which may be marketed as made from corn, sugar cane, etc.) are actually extremely environmentally unfriendly because of the massive embodied energy required to create the industry-ready polymer from the bio-waste material. Their single benefit is nominal biodegradability.…

That's surprising, I'd have assumed there's a bunch of embodied energy in clay pottery too. I'd certainly have felt more guilty throwing away a single use pottery cup than one made of paper. It's frustrating how counter intuitive a lot of environmental issues are.

I'm sure things get twisted around like plastic recycling.

This is sort of how it seems to me sometimes: https://www.theonion.com/geologists-we-may-be-slowly-running...

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

#76

Post by sebazzz »

Steve44 wrote: post #71
nicoburns wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't necessarily take a technology shift. Single-use containers could also be legislated against. And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place.

> And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place. That isn't as straightforward as it seems, they are returning what is a contaminated waste product. That needs to be kept very separate from the clean food-grade food & packaging deliveries, you can't just chuck a bag of waste in the delivery vehicles.

Soda and juice bottles are also a contaminated waste product, yet in European countries at least, recycling works fine.

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

#77

Post by seanwilson »

How about incentivise every coffee place to serve in standard sizes and accept reusable cups from each other where either you can ask for your cup to be filled up or replaced with a similar clean one for a big customer discount? Something similar to returning the glass bottle the fizzy drink came in for a deposit.

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

#78

Post by Steve44 »

sebazzz wrote: post #76
Steve44 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place. That isn't as straightforward as it seems, they are returning what is a contaminated waste product. That needs to be kept very separate from the clean food-grade food & packaging deliveries, you can't just chuck a bag of waste in the delivery vehicles.

Soda and juice bottles are also a contaminated waste product, yet in European countries at least, recycling works fine.

It's not the recycling, it's the sending them back through the same supply chain that would be the problem.

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

#79

Post by guillem_lefait »

baybal2 wrote: post #63

There is no so much "waste" left from sugar cane. The bagasse is already used as free fuel to boil cane juice. Only places where electricity, or natural gas is really, really cheap have surplus bagasse.

I'm living in Martinique where there is an important rhum industrie. Another common use of bagasse is compost.

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

#80

Post by Copenjin »

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"?

No, they don't. Non-american cars don't even have the hole for the cup (that Ford ones for example have). So, not remotely common, at all.
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