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About a year or so ago, Microsoft's campuses made a huge switch from all plastic cups/silverware to compostable materials. Silverware/cups literally made out of corn and potatoes and such. A common question was "why doesn't MS just give each employee a ceramic mug?" The response was that MS found it's actually more environmentally damaging to wash them than it is to compost a crap load of cups. I found that response…
That's true for hand washed mugs. Running your coffee cup under the hot tap in the kitchen uses vastly more energy than making a paper one or cleaning batches of cups in an industrial dishwasher. Best alternative is my coffee cup that I have black coffee (no milk or sugar) and I refill but never wash. Gradually the layer of coffee tar on the inside exchanges with the fresh coffee. It's also pretty hygienic, nobody el…
Re: The Starbucks Cup Dilemma - Corporate Social Responsibility
#51Yes, our obsession with cleanliness/newness is one of the major culprits in our piles of waste. And to think we once lived amongst each other with communal drinking cups at the water fountain...