By Shawn Dell Joyce

At some point today, you will be offered a disposable cup. Before you take it, consider how disposable that cup really is. If we were to look at how much energy it takes to produce cups made from paper, polystyrene and ceramic, most people would automatically think the ceramic cup is the greenest choice.

You’d have to use the ceramic cup 640 times before it would equal a polystyrene cup and 294 times to equal a paper/cardboard one in terms of the energy it takes to produce the cups, according to Treehugger.com. In terms of air pollution, polystyrene produces the least amount of emissions to manufacture one cup. It also takes more water to manufacture a ceramic cup than the entire life cycle water consumption of the other two.

Before you toss out all your ceramic cups and replace them with Styrofoam, Treehugger went on to find the ceramic vessel much more functional and durable with up to 3,000 uses compared to single-use paper, plastic or polystyrene foam. 

“But for a reusable cup to be reused, it has to be washed,” says Martin B. Hocking, a professor of Chemistry at the University of Victoria, in Canada. Hocking authored a life cycle assessment of reusable cups made from glass, ceramic and plastic to disposable cups made of paper and polystyrene.

Hocking factors in the cost of energy to wash the cups which is almost equal to the energy expended to produce a single polystyrene cup. According to Hocking’s study; you would have to use a reusable plastic cup 450 times, a glass cup 393, and a ceramic cup more than 1000 times for it to approach the energy efficiency of polystyrene. You would only have to reuse a plastic, glass or ceramic cup about 20 times (on average) to equal the energy expenditure of a disposable paper cup. 

If you go by just the energy expenditures, Styrofoam cups seem like the way to go. However, there is much more to a cup than its function. What happens to these five cups after their useful life is over?

Glass takes over a million years to decompose, but it is recyclable, and when recycled it reduces pollution by 20 percent according to California’s Project New Leaf. Paper can be recycled, but most paper cups are coated with plastic or wax and cannot be recycled. Even coated paper will biodegrade in five years, while uncoated and unbleached paper will be gone in a few days according to Worldwise.com  Styrofoam and plastic do not biodegrade, instead they photodegrade breaking down into smaller and smaller particles that will eventually wind up in our bodies.

Scientists are just now learning the effects of photodegrading plastics and polystyrene on the environment. These substances have only been around about 50 years, and are just now breaking down into microscopic sizes. As plastics get smaller, they are eaten by smaller creatures. As these creatures are eaten by larger creatures up the food chain, these plastics (and toxins) get concentrated inside living bodies, even in our bodies.

“Except for a small amount that has been incinerated,” says Tony Andrady, a senior research scientist at North Carolina’s Research Triangle, “every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last 50 years or so still remains. It’s somewhere in the environment.”  

Nothing is really disposable. Many of the things we consider disposable, will probably outlive humanity as a species.  The greenest choice is to cup your hands and drink out of them as our ancestors have for millennia.  That may not go over to well in the school cafeteria, so get in the habit of bringing your own cup.

Here are a few alternatives to paper and polystyrene:

— Replace paper and polystyrene with biodegradable, compostable clear drinking cups made from cornstarch, pack of 50 for $8 from www.ecowise.com

— Offer a discount to customers who bring their own beverage container if you own a fast- food restaurant or take-out place.

— Commit your whole office to zero waste and have each employee bring in his own cup, plates, and utensils.

— Don’t host large events with “disposables;” include in the budget the cost of renting or buying real dishes and the staff to wash them.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning, nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Orange County. Shawn@zestoforange.com

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