The coffe cup conundrum

Valley Waste industrial, commercial, and institutional coordinator Bonnie Clemens made a stop at our office last week. This woman, who's unfairly been called a ‘Garbage Nazi,’ is terrific at helping the ordinary garbage sorter figure out what bin to stick which trash in.

Now I can indisputably tell my brother-in-law that styrofoam is garbage. Now I can toss plastic milk carton caps knowing Bonnie's rule that any plastic smaller than a pill bottle is useless.

She also made us feel good about the strides we have made in Nova Scotia. Apparently we compost three times more than the rest of Canada and recycle 68 per cent more. Of course, there is always more to be done. I think Earth Day must have been established in the spring to prompt us all to look around at the detritus of winter.

Tossed coffee cups have bothered me more since Bonnie told me they can't be composted. I'm not the only one with that erroneous impression. They look like they are just paper, but apparently not. The thin plastic lining that makes a paper cup waterproof also keeps it from being recycled. However, I'm also told if you take your Tim Horton's paper cup back to the point of purchase they can compost it.

More than 100 billion

In the United States, more than 100 billion cups of coffee are quaffed annually. Of that number, it is estimated that 14.4 billion cups are purchased in disposable paper cups. According to the environmental group Carbon Rally, placed end-to-end, these cups would wrap around planet Earth 55 times and weigh around 900 million pounds. Paper and cardboard make up over 40 per cent of the solid waste buried in North American landfills. A lot of that is disposable coffee cups.

The manufacture of the coated paper stock used in making most coffee cups requires energy. Carbon Rally points out it also takes energy to manufacture cups. It then takes more energy to transport the cups from the factory to the coffee shop. That energy comes mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere.

So what to do? We are addicted to coffee.

First of all, buy a travel mug and use it. Locally, Just Us! offers an incentive to customers who bring in their own mugs. If you can get into the habit of rinsing it at work and stowing it away in the car, it will be there if you need it again.

Carbon Rally has a challenge going to get people to use five less disposable coffee cups a week. By switching to a reusable coffee mug and using that many fewer cups, apparently you can reduce your CO2 emissions by 1.25 pounds per week – and that's not factoring in the energy cost of a corrugated cardboard 'hot sleeve' and a plastic lid.

Takes 18 months

Ironically, the same web site says you have to drink from a new stainless-steel travel mug for 18 months to start saving on carbon used in making paper cups.

There are totally different alternatives. Capital Group Companies, a U.S. financial management firm, offers its employees disposable cups made from biodegradable cornstarch, and plates and bowls made of sugar cane. Maybe we should all consider this.

I certainly wouldn't go so far as to advocate cutting out our national addiction. Especially after reading recently that coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body. The hot beverage has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's. Studies in Scotland have also been published that suggest people who drink coffee are less likely to suffer heart disease than tea drinkers. Pass the caffeine!

No, we just need to manage our drinking better. I hope Earth Day, April 22, will continue to point us in the right direction. The Annapolis Valley Business Environmental Committee will be hosting its special event this coming Sunday, April 20 to mark Earth Day in the parking lot outside our New Minas office.

Last year, volunteers from this group of 14 businesses hauled 13 or 14 cartloads of garbage out of the stream behind a local mall. This year a two-hour community clean-up, starting at 10 a.m., will be followed by food and music. My small Earth Day plan is to walk home from church that day and pick up whatever has been tossed along the roadside. But we all should do what we can to show we care for the blue-green planet we inhabit - and not just on one day in the year.