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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

#81

Post by GekkePrutser »

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…

But a cup of water heated to the boiling point would long have cooled off by the 2 hours, so would this still count then?

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

#82

Post by sfifs »

techsupporter wrote: post #38
UweSchmidt wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> but we also have to adapt our behaviour a little bit And this is what is largely holding us back. "Fear of loss" is a very big deal whenever you talk about large-scale modifications to a system with which people have grown very familiar. People can always find a reason why a particular change "simply cannot work" or "is more trouble than it is worth" or "the benefits are not outweighed by the downsides" or "my use…

> As someone who does transit advocacy in a dense city with good transit, it is very frustrating.

While going a bit off topic, the issue I have seen with advocacy groups is that they focus on solving for the median case (eg. 80% of trips are less than 5km) whereas people usually take decisions that work for them in the edge cases (what if i need to take my ageing dad to the hospital on a rainy night, what if i have to take my kid to a far away school for a competition).

To drive real habit change, you have to have good solutions for the edge case - otherwise people will just default to re-using their edge case solution for their median use cases (sunk cost).

In the city I live in for example, even 6-7 years ago, it was essentially impossible to find a cab in the rain. I've personally missed a flight due to a sudden downpour.

With reliable and massive inventory of ride sharing NOW available where i live, I am comfortable living without a car. In my hometown where my parents live (a smaller city which also has a transit system but poor cab service), I still would not do that.

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

#83

Post by sokoloff »

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…

Where does this end? I could also bring my own silverware, my own plate and bowl, my own cloth napkin. “Hey, we’re going to get some soup and go for walk; wanna come?” “Sorry, I can’t, I thought I was going to have a salad and so I only brought my salad plates and utensils with me.”

I think it’s fairly unreasonable to expect people to lug around everything they might need for the day every day.

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

#84

Post by dmurray »

bywaterstreet wrote: post #50
kwhitefoot wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least here in Norway it would be very unusual for a coffee cup to be left in the car and anyway many of those who do drink a lot of coffee on the go use a reusable cup bought from a petrol station that gives you a year of 'free' coffee. See https://www.circlek.no/koppen for instance.

That's pretty cool. How much is that? "Costa Coffee" (a UK chain) machines are in lots of petrol stations nowadays, but I'm not aware of any kind of subscription.

Pret a Manger has a coffee subscription program in the UK, at £20/month. Not quite the same model as petrol stations, but close.

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

#85

Post by culopatin »

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 don’t think it would be the end of luxury if we had to finish our drinks within 2hs. If it had always been that cups leak after 2hs, this wouldn’t be a problem or cars would be designed to make the cup holders easy to wash.

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

#86

Post by sokoloff »

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.

I “admitted” to my doctor that I’d successfully switched to consciously eating better but that I was still drinking coffee. Her immediate reaction was “So what? Coffee’s not bad for you.”

Now, that’s just one doctor’s opinion, but when I did some follow up research, it did seem like the overall effects were probably very modestly negative at worst and might easily be positive.

In terms of quitting caffeine in general (to which I was previously essentially addicted), it seemed to have a trough at day 4-10 and then was better by around day 20 and didn’t miss it much by around the 6th week. I’m back on it, but quitting it cold turkey took a lot longer than I’d have expected.

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

#87

Post by dmurray »

nicoburns wrote: post #70
hannob wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Observation from Germany: A couple of years ago I wouldn't bring my own cup, because I was uncomfortable with having conversations about it. This has changed, because it's now prevalent enough that I'd consider it "not unusual" to have my own cup. Also plenty of places now offer small discounts. I'm not doing it for the discounts, but that of course adds to the normalization. (Also: Covid makes things more complicate…

I don't think reusable cups are an isuse with covid. After all it's your cup. And the baristas will have to touch disposable one too. So long as you wash it I guess.

Reusable cups allow the customer to contaminate the barista, as well as the other way around, so it's an extra avenue for infection - and a more dangerous one, since he's going to be serving coffee to hundreds more customers and does not get disinfected between each customer.

Coffee shops here in Ireland stopped accepting reusable cups during 2020.

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

#88

Post by lakala6790 »

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.

I’m not a doctor, this isnt medical advice; Ive used L-tyrosine several times to help me quit. I typically use it for 2-3 days and have no with drawl symptoms during that time.

I always go back because it helps with DOMS.

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

#89

Post by christophilus »

intricatedetail wrote: post #52
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…

Should cars have a coffee tank? Imagine pouring coffee at a stop just like petrol and have dispenser somewhere near driving seat with a mouthpiece.

It could even come with an IV drip. Then you could eat and get caffeinated at the same time.

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

#90

Post by notjtrig »

intricatedetail wrote: post #52
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…

Should cars have a coffee tank? Imagine pouring coffee at a stop just like petrol and have dispenser somewhere near driving seat with a mouthpiece.

A Mercedes-Benz Keurig partnership perhaps.
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