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Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

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Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#61

Post by ChrisArchitect »

beiller wrote: post #33
diego wrote: post #4

This is misguided. Let's say this campaign succeeds. Maybe 10% of the cups will be recycled, leaving still a ton of waste. It would be much more effective to campaign against single-use cups. I grew up in a time in which you had to bring an empty bottle glass bottle to a shop, and they would take it and give you a full one, which you'd bring back empty next time. If you didn't have one, you'd leave a deposit (effecti…

Reusable cups are still banned at my Starbucks due to covid which is a bit frustrating for me. I've been using my reusable cup for 5 years until covid. They used to sell a cup every year which gave free coffees for the month of January.

yeah feel like Covid is a huge setback for the re-use movement, shopping bags also, as seemed like finally were over the hump as far as adoption and normalization. All out the window now. Plastic bags as far as the eye can see

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#62

Post by lrem »

ars wrote: post #21

We need to stop trying to recycle things, and start burning them for energy. It's simply better for the environment. It suffers from not "looking" green, which matters far more to people than actually being green.

I was shocked when I learned about all the things you can't recycle in Switzerland. But it seems that, indeed, burning is the better choice. And it works well in practice.

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#63

Post by pxtail »

diego wrote: post #4

This is misguided. Let's say this campaign succeeds. Maybe 10% of the cups will be recycled, leaving still a ton of waste. It would be much more effective to campaign against single-use cups. I grew up in a time in which you had to bring an empty bottle glass bottle to a shop, and they would take it and give you a full one, which you'd bring back empty next time. If you didn't have one, you'd leave a deposit (effecti…

Unfortunately when it comes to big corporations it's hard to tell if something like this is a real effort or just _greenwashing_ meant to improve company's image in the eyes of customers and help to silence their conscience.

When it comes to single plastic usage I think that putting all the pressure on customers, individuals is simply wrong and not enough, I'm convinced that serious pressure needs to be placed on manufacturers, amount and count of used packaging materials taxed or something like this. Recently I received box of pralines as a gift - amount of various materials used to deliver 15 pieces of chocolate is absolutely insane, ridiculous: hard translucent plastic case, tinfoil, tinfoil pressed/glued with plastic wrapping, lacquered glued paper, non-lacquered paper, plastic tray - there are tons of products like this one on stores shelves and I'm disillusioned and don't believe at all that it's getting "recycled"

In addition to above I don't believe that just putting garbage in the correct bin is enough effort from customer's side, it's just not.

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#64

Post by threatofrain »

diego wrote: post #4

This is misguided. Let's say this campaign succeeds. Maybe 10% of the cups will be recycled, leaving still a ton of waste. It would be much more effective to campaign against single-use cups. I grew up in a time in which you had to bring an empty bottle glass bottle to a shop, and they would take it and give you a full one, which you'd bring back empty next time. If you didn't have one, you'd leave a deposit (effecti…

It's notable that Starbucks already gives you a discount if you bring your own coffee container, and that they have a propensity of giving you more if your container is bigger.

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#65

Post by lp0_on_fire »

cj wrote: post #41
lp0_on_fire wrote: post #10

While we're talking about coffee and recycling...I'm pretty sure there's more plastic in a K-cup then there is coffee.

Thankfully, they make reusable k-cups that work surprisingly well and much cheaper than disposable ones. I highly recommend.

Oh for sure - the reusable ones are great.

That being said...it negates the "convenience" factor that attracted me to the Keurig in the first place. I ended up switching back to a regular drip coffee maker with a built-in grinder

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#66

Post by alecst »

kawsper wrote: post #26
alecst wrote: post #8

Not only are they not recyclable, but there's a water cost, energy cost, and a pollution cost to making them. Obviously the fate of humanity doesn't depend on what we do with our coffee cups. But in my opinion the best solution is to have people bring their own cups and just reuse them, and unfortunately only a small percent of people do that. Back in grad school, to get people to bring their own cups more often, we…

Coffeeshops (Costa and Starbucks) in the UK offers a 25p discount if you bring your own cup. Just be aware that there are some strange terms and conditions: Costa requires you to have a lid, or else they can refuse to use it, the rule seems bizarre since they will happily fill your coffee in a lidless ceramic mug, but if you bring a lidless metal thermo mug like mine it is a no-go: https://www.snowpeak.com/collection…

It's definitely better than nothing, but sadly this has a very small effect on consumer behavior. This was the main thrust of my presentation.

My proposal was to change the way this "discount" is realized -- by giving everyone the discount, and then only charging people who buy the cups.

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#67

Post by pintxo »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #28
underseacables wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was amazed in Berlin the recycling program that makes it very easy to recycle cans and bottles. People made it a job to pickup and search through trash so they could recycle. A can deposit would be welcomed, but maybe I’m old and just remember crushing cans to fill up trash bags to get $7. Sure was fun to get that money as a kid.

Some places you don't get the deposit if the can is crushed, because they need to be able to read the barcode. Which is insane, because crushed cans take up a fraction of the space of whole cans and only makes the recycling process more complex.

The self-service machines used in Germany to collect bottles and cans will do the crushing part for you (after reading the barcode)

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#68

Post by frosted-flakes »

pintxo wrote: post #67
frosted-flakes wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some places you don't get the deposit if the can is crushed, because they need to be able to read the barcode. Which is insane, because crushed cans take up a fraction of the space of whole cans and only makes the recycling process more complex.

The self-service machines used in Germany to collect bottles and cans will do the crushing part for you (after reading the barcode)

Yeah, but collecting whole cans is inconvenient. My normal process is to crush it with my hands immediately after drinking it (top to bottom) so it doesn't take up so much room.

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#69

Post by OldTimeCoffee »

pomian wrote: post #56
OldTimeCoffee wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really better for the environment because you have all the byproducts of the combustion, some of which can be pretty toxic themselves.

Unless you sustain 1850°C

Sure, good luck with the vessel at that temp

Re: Impact Campaign: SEAL Calls On Starbucks To #UpTheCup

#70

Post by quantified »

kadoban wrote: post #44
lovecg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wondering what the economics of keeping single use cups but making them out of aluminum would look like? It’s one of the more valuable recyclables (to the point where homeless people will collect them to make some money).

Is aluminum recycling actually valuable to society, or is it only valuable due to the deposit?

Smelting aluminum ore into aluminum is very energy-intensive, recycling is very cheap. I’d see the energy savings as a benefit.
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