Most of the coffee shops that I frequent offer an AUD 50c (US 35c) discount if you bring your own reusable cup. It works well!
Coffee Cups Are Next
61–70 of 447 posts
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#62First they came for plastic bags. Then they came for straws. Coffee cups are next. Straws are a hot button topic in disabled circles.
What’s wrong with paper (or biodegradable plastic) straws, besides costing an extra penny or whatever?
Nothing. There's a coffeeshop down the street that has them.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#63What about returning refillable standard cups ? You return them dirty, starbucks/mac do wash them and everytime you want a coffee you get a clean one. It existed in France for glass bottles in the last century, it's still like that in Belgium for beers (and works very well). I don't see any problem to apply it for coffee. You can even think of little stickers of the brand from where you get your coffee, those sticker…
This will not happen; each firm will benefit from only accepting their own proprietary cups. Also, what about sizes?
This is where regulation can step in, like how the EU regulated standard phone chargers.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s wrong with paper (or biodegradable plastic) straws, besides costing an extra penny or whatever?
Why is paper the first choice? The obvious choice I think is something that doesn't need to go to the garbage immediately but something re-usable such as metal straws or wood straws.
A reusable straw would be difficult to clean, I imagine.
I'd suggest the first place to start is to just question whether a straw is necessary. I think they're mostly a gimmick, apart from their use by some disabled people.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
"McDonald's is being called on to stop its roll out of paper straws in the UK and Ireland, amid claims that they "dissolve" in drinks." "Petition creator Martin Reed started it a week ago, complaining the new paper straws dissolve as you drink them. "Many social media users agree, with some claiming paper straws are "horrible" while one says it is like "drinking a milkshake through an empty toilet roll tube"." https:…
I mean, it’s one anecdata point, but I like the new UK McDonald’s straws. Sure they taste different, but they last at least a couple of hours, and they are much stiffer - such that it’s easier to insert, stay where you put them and dont have a leaky bend in.
> taste different
I don't think most people want to taste straws. I certainly don't.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#66I was in Seoul last month. The McDonalds there had plastic coffee mugs and there was a bin for the mugs where the trays are returned and trash is disposed. Of course, normal disposable cup was available for to go orders. The major issue is cost of course. Disposable cups are a cheap solution. As long as they remain cheap and there are not other compelling reasons, few companies are going to be making any changes. I'v…
The simple and impactful solution is charging for the cup. Here in CA, we have to pay 10 cents per grocery bag . I could buy a few thousand of them over my lifetime and it would not impact me very much but somehow I can't get myself to pay the 10 cents, since it's going to end up in the trash, so I carry my reusable bags to the store all the time. A solution that would really work would be to band cities from exporti…
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Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There were a few decades where paper straws were the standard. That still doesn’t answer the question I raised in my post though. Where the standard paper straws wax paper?
The modern ones seem to be very lightly coated if at all. I do think that the reaction that they are impossible to drink from is more than a little silly, though. Maybe if you leave the straw in the drink for many hours it will collapse on you? I haven’t tried that.
I have used paper once or twice (albeit not in Florida, just some random place), and it didn't take long to get soggy. Drove me nuts. I feel like businesses will love this; forces people to drink quickly.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#68So why can't we spend all this money we're wasting debating what plastic stuff to ban figuring out how to recycle these things instead? (or down-cycle, plastic contaminated paper pulp from cups seems like a natural fit for filter media)
Plastic is hard to recycle since there are multiple types and there can be multiple types in one product. Also generally the recycled plastic is not as strong and usable as the original type and it's more expensive. Recycling plastic is not the answer.
Most of the recycling claims by companies with the exception of aluminum is used as a way to make consumers feel better about using and trashing a product.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s wrong with paper (or biodegradable plastic) straws, besides costing an extra penny or whatever?
Why is paper the first choice? The obvious choice I think is something that doesn't need to go to the garbage immediately but something re-usable such as metal straws or wood straws.
Carrying around a straw will cause you to end up with a sticky mess if you drink anything but water. I guess the option is to carry it to a bathroom and wash it after every use? No thank you.
Re: Coffee Cups Are Next
#70If you don't think the people who work at these companies care about making better cups, read the following article.[0] There is a big opportunity for making a better disposable cup, but there are many engineering hurdles to jump over. - The cup has to retail for 17 cents. - It has to support a lid that is resealable. - It has to tip over and not spill. - It has to handle high temperatures. - It can't alter the taste…
It's worth pointing out that the obvious alternative, reusable to-go cups, need to solve an additional set of challenges:
- Must NOT violate sanitization of the work area; cups provided by customers should not pose any health risks to workers or other customers.
- Should be durable enough to survive repeated visits
- Either the reusable cup must conform to a standard size, baristas need a way to measure liquids consistently without in-cup guides, or coffee could be sold by volume...
- Reusable cups should not introduce enough delay to appreciably disrupt the flow of customers
Disposable cups have the great advantage of being standardized by the company and solve a lot of these problems, especially the health problems. This is just off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm missing some other great points. This is a much harder problem than it appears on the surface; the devil's in the details.