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

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

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 126 posts

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

#101

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

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.…

Is this product better? https://www.pulpac.com/

I know nothing about it other than the company's own claims, but if their claims are true then it seems interesting.

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

#102

Post by [deleted] »

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"?

[deleted]

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

#103

Post by arnarbi »

seanwilson wrote: post #77

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.

Here is one of my favorite things: https://us.huskee.co/swap/

Plus the cups look and feel really nice.

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

#104

Post by GordonS »

seszett wrote: post #59
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I*m not convinced. Pretty much every gas station here in Norway has a convenience store that sells coffee - not really much different in that regard from the US (I'm from the US). Not as many fast food restaurants, though the gas station fare is better here than the US.

In France as well coffee is available in gas stations, highway rest areas, etc. But people usually drink their coffee before going back to their car, not while driving.

I'm in the UK, but was going to say the same thing. I agree with the GP - drinking while driving, or even just the idea of drive-through coffee, are very American things.

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

#105

Post by zeta0134 »

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.…

I'd imagine a big challenge with reusable containers in the retail space is food safety, especially in countries with strong regulation. A lot of restaurants in my area won't pour a beverage into a customer supplied container because they're afraid of contaminating the shared area with it. They see disposable cups as more hygienic, even though they are clearly more wasteful.

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

#106

Post by verall »

INTPenis wrote: post #32
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.

Your full dog poop bags are not commercially compostable.

Dog poop is nominally compostable but if most people were composting their pet's waste the concentration would be way too high.

I pick up my dog's shit with BPI approved baggies because I want the plastic to break down, but mass pet waste needs to go into a real landfill with liners and vents and stuff.

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

#107

Post by tomjen3 »

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.

I guarantee you that most people won't care about the environment after the first time they have to partially disassemble their car to get all the dried coffee out.

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

#108

Post by bigbubba »

Steve44 wrote: post #78
sebazzz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reuse of glass bottles is not recycling (it's reuse.) And there is no problem, it works great.

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

#109

Post by tomjen3 »

paulintrognon wrote: post #39

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…

You use 'should' a lot. That is a moral judgement, not an argument.

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

#110

Post by switch007 »

Has the 'overton window' of coffee consumption shrunk so completely as to exclude the European way of drinking coffee?

Why can't we just walk up to a bar, order a coffee, have it served in a ceramic cup? I guess the majority of coffee shops not actually having a bar is a bit of a hindrance!

Post reply on HN