Styrofoam Cups? What?s wrong with Dunkin Donuts?

**Plomomedia** · 04-07-2010, 09:55 AM

LivingGreen, can you take a picture of a Jamba Juice styrofoam cup? I would make a graphic similar to the one I made for Dunkin Donuts (which i encourage you to leave a comment under to show DD fans what's up) - http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...1&id=681945934. contact me at my email if you want to collaborate. stephenthomson@hotmail.com

**LivingGreen** · 04-09-2010, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Plomomedia

Taking the fight to their doorstep: I made a graphic intended to get Dunkin Donuts' and consumers' attention. The following link goes directly to the Dunkin Donuts fan page on Facebook, where most people are oblivious to the environmental disaster styrofoam is causing.... Please leave a comment below the picture to show your support for a ban on styrofoam!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...1&id=681945934

Nice one!

**edenvegan** · 04-21-2010, 10:44 AM

This is a really good, useful thread. I never thought of reusing a cup from a place I frequent. (Duh)--Now, I'll put it into practice. Thanks, again.

**eapoosmama** · 04-23-2010, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by stevenchen18

Our company, with three hundred people, provides styrofoam cups for coffee. At my suggestions, the company gave out coffee mug for each employee and encourage them use the mug instead. The mug is green and has letters on it, xxx go Green.

Yeah for your company! What a smart and responsible move.

I vote on not stopping at all and simply making your own in the morning to take with you in your reusable mug. Save the gas!

**ButterflyToastie** · 02-18-2011, 02:09 AM

Reuable mugs - well Ive never heard them called that - here they are just mugs! So worrying that what I thought was the most common type now is refferred to as a 'reusable version'! Thankfully when I go for coffee I tend to drink in so have it seved in a real mug. I think that starbucks gives papaer cups here in the UK but then they give you those plastic lids too, so not very eco! I bought a travel mug a few years back - it is insulated so keeps your drink nice and warm (or cool in summer) and has a lid which forms a seal, so you cna get your coffee, pop it in your handbag and keep it til you get to the office.

**yournotactuallygreen** · 03-03-2011, 06:40 PM

styrofoam is the greener choice. and it takes around 10,000 uses for a ceramic mug to be considered better to use than styrofoam. do your research, take into account the manufacturing and processing involved. one ceramic mug is way worse than one paper cup and one paper cup is much worse than one styrofoam cup. besides not all plants can even recycle the paper cups and they end up in landfills due to the plastic coating on the inside. read the article.

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-p...n&size=largest

**zach** · 03-08-2011, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by yournotactuallygreen

styrofoam is the greener choice. and it takes around 10,000 uses for a ceramic mug to be considered better to use than styrofoam. do your research, take into account the manufacturing and processing involved. one ceramic mug is way worse than one paper cup and one paper cup is much worse than one styrofoam cup. besides not all plants can even recycle the paper cups and they end up in landfills due to the plastic coating on the inside. read the article.

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-p...n&size=largest

It's never completely black and white and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You are weighing your decision very heavily on the manufacturing process and the energy used during the process. If that's all you consider then you are right. It does take more energy to produce a paper cup or a ceramic mug.

If you consider the source of the materials and what happens to the cups afterwards then I would beg to differ.

Materials: Styrofoam is a petroleum based product. It's not a renewable resource. Paper when harvested sustainablely is a renewable resource. Some paper cups have a plastic or wax coating but we are talking about coffee cups here. I'm not aware of coffee cups that do this because wax for sure would melt and probably plastic too.

Disposal: I've lived in three places that did curbside recycling at the time I lived there. Minneapolis, Chicago and New Hampshire none of them recycled Styrofoam cups. All of them recycled paper cups.

If they don't end up in the landfill the paper cup will biodegrade under most conditions. The styrofoam one will not. It will break down into smaller and smaller pieces and likely be around longer than any of us in the form of small styrofoam fragments.

The article you linked to also raises an issue with paper cups producing methane when they degrade in a landfill. Sure but most landfills capture methane and more and more of them are actually burning the methane to produce electricity. On top of that, if the tree that was harvested to produce the cup fell down in the woods after it died and rotted away it would produce methane and CO2 as well. I don't believe that is a valid argument. At least the paper cup is biodegrading unlike the styrofoam one. Anytime something biodegrades, including the leaves that fall out of the trees, it produces greenhouse gases.

**zach** · 03-09-2011, 08:37 AM

Here's an interesting article pertaining to my previous response. It's regarding the restaurants in the Capitol switching from eco-friendly to foam cups and plastic plates:

And there's the environmental issue, they say — the plastic foam is not being recycled.

Along with that, Lungren says, the old stuff cost more than the plastic and foam. It's fiscal responsibility, a statement of who's in charge now.

Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer worries this is just the first step toward dismantling the whole Green the Capitol program.

"You wonder what's next," he says. "Lead paint? Asbestos? I mean, there's lots of things that are less expensive as long as you don't care about health and other considerations."

We must consider the other non-monetary costs of using cheaper foam cups. Asbestos is cheap if you consider just the supply and production side of things as in the article YourNotActuallyGreen posted above about foam cups but in reality we know Asbestos is not cheap because of the health and environmental affects.

Tempest In A Foam Cup: Lawmakers Spar Over Plastic : NPR