This March, Seattle Public Utilities quietly rolled out an updated city-wide recycling plan with the type of efficiency critics rarely expect from government.  Billed as “Better Recycling”, the changes appease the vocal crescendo of recycle-maniacs who have been pushing for broader recycling options for years - and the top dogs in city hall who have set ambitious recycling goals.

The “better recycling” moniker is ambiguous, but the city has covered its bases.  Everything from more pick-up days, to job security, to recycling accessibility is resulting from the program.  But perhaps most interesting for us coffee-lovers is this: paper coffee cups are now recyclable.  There are a few caveats; cups that are too dirty might still be sorted for the landfill, and foam covered cups don’t make the grade.  Nonetheless, this rocked our world at SIS.  New recycling options have the potential to alleviate tons of residential and commercial waste, and advocacy groups (us included) can heave a sigh of relief knowing the city can “walk the walk”.  So does this mean we can close the books on the coffee cup issue? Or would a celebratory Irish coffee be premature?

 

Blue Skies for Eco-Coffee Drinkers

Seattle’s recycling progress should put smiles on java drinkers throughout the world’s coffee capital.  The new coffee cup rule makes recycling more convenient and accessible.  Seattleites seem prone to recycle on instinct, so tossing a cup into the right bin shouldn’t be a hard habit to change.   And public recycling receptacles are already abundant throughout most of the metro area.  It’s too early to predict any impact in quantitative terms, but past successes in Seattle are promising.  In the first year of the big composting push, Seattleites remembered to toss 80,000 tons of food and yard waste into their compost bins.  The common paper cup could very well be the summer-blockbuster sequel.

Of course, municipal reinforcements are always welcomed by environmental non-profits and advocacy groups.  Recycling centers which can handle the complex materials of a disposable coffee cup come with a big price tag.  Amidst tight budgets and a shaky economy, it’s fortunate that the upgrade wasn’t axed.

The new rules could have a big impact on long-term plans for eco-regulations too.  It’s tough to enforce recycling when options are limited.  But now that the city has stepped up to the plate, it’ll be possible to coerce those who create excessive trash to change their habits  And if the city is to hit its goal of diverting 60% of its waste to recycling and composting, this may happen soon.

 

Prevalient Clouds Still Abound

Despite the many benefits, environmentalists should be cautious not to succumb to hubris.  As far as waste solutions go, broad recycling is a proven weapon.  But conservationists cringe when “recycling” becomes the default solution to municipal environmental issues.  Sure, disposable paper cups create landfill waste, and that’s not good.  But what about trees, water, energy, petroleum, and other scarce resources gobbled up by cup production?  Because of the extra resources consumed in the pick-up and recycling process, disposable coffee cups being recycled can claim even more energy than before!  Unless new recycling trucks and sorting centers run on alternative energy, ecoists miss a flawless victory.

This solution also neglects to conserve one important resource in particular – money.  Recycling, although eco-friendly and popular, does come with a cost.  The city has to pay for the state-of-the-art recycling center, businesses must pay for recycling services, and coffee houses still have to pay for their disposable cups.  A recent Wall Street Journal article cited a coffee shop owner in Pennsylvania who lost 40 cents per cup in costs. Comparably, promoting reusable coffee cups as a solution saves money for everyone.  When it comes to a solution that’s friendly to both the financial and environmental bottom lines, recycling may take second place.

Could Seattle’s programs and commitment to recycling serve as the paragon for other municipalities?  It would be an environmentalists dream to see every town and city embrace recycling like Seattle, but the reality is less rosy.  Retrofitting a typical recycling center to process disposable coffee cups is costly and out of reach for most cities.  And even though Seattle pushed these new recycling investments through the budget process, other municipalities may not be so lucky.  I recently visited Lawrence, Kansas to speak with a campus group advocating for glass recycling in bars.  The biggest obstacle they face is that glass recycling isn’t yet available.  Chances are, spending money to recycle coffee cups is low on their priority list.

Even within the coffee capital, the new recycling solution misses a few targets.  Broad recycling may be available, but there’s no guarantee that landlords will provide such amenities to commercial tenants.  As Jim Hanna, Environmental Director for Starbucks pointed out in an SIS interview last year:

“Here in Seattle, where commercial recycling is generally available, we [Starbucks] often lease our store spaces from landlords; which may or may not provide us with recycling options… it’s important to understand that setting up recycling is subject to a lot more variables than just putting some bins out front.”

It isn’t just the torpor landlords putting up obstacles.  Large Seattle institutions like the University of Washington find themselves left out of the celebratory recycling hubbub. An article titled “New City Recycling Program Not Instituted at UW” notes that contracts with disparate waste management companies are the root cause of UW evading the new rules.  This quirky irregularity takes a more serious tone when it’s realized the campus burns through 5000 disposable cups a day. 

So…what about that Irish coffee?

Bottom line, this is a major achievement for environmental movers, the city of Seattle, and coffee lovers.  New recycling rules will undoubtedly lessen the amount of garbage from disposable drink containers.  But only the most credulous of coffee drinkers should believe that the new regulations will close the case on paper cup’s environmental footprint.  Conservation takes a back seat when recycling is driving progress, which does no good in protecting our natural resources. 

Ultimately, it’s still the responsibility of coffee drinkers and the coffee business to actually do something about paper cups.  Whether that means putting in the elbow grease to institute recycling or promoting and using reusable coffee cups, the city government can only do so much.  

 

Tags: activist, Better, BYOC, coffee, coffee house, compost, Conservation, Cost, cups, disposable, eco, ecoist, Expense, garbage, goals, Greg Nickels, is, java, Litter, Management, Mayor, paper, Public, recycle manicas, Recycling, Recyleable, reusable, Seattle, sexy, successful, sustainability, Trash, triple bottom line, Utilities, waste, waste reduction

A picture can be worth a thousand words. Or, in photographer Chris Jordan’s case, 410 thousand paper cups. The above picture is a screen shot from a video the artist gave at a talk called Picturing Excess in February of 2008. The 410,000 paper cups stacked together in the photo depict the number of disposable cups Americans use every 15 minutes. Jordan added a silhouette of two people as a scale reference.

At only 15 minutes worth of cups, the stacks blur into cream colored stripes. At one day’s worth of cups, the problem is even worse. The lines smear into a solid cubicle-colored canvas. The stack of cups in real life would be as tall as a 42 story building. Jordan has added another scale reference in this photo – the Statue of Liberty.

I could preach about the environmental degradation caused by our need for disposable coffee cups, but eyes begin to glaze over once too many numbers sputter from my mouth. Jordan’s artwork does true justice to showing our nations’ staggering consumption habits.

This piece simply titled Paper Cups is just one of many pieces in a Jordan’s newest series. Called “Running the Numbers – An American Self-Portrait”, the collection features artwork on many social issues of our time.  Plastic bottles, paper bags, prison uniforms, cell phones, and other consumer products are showcased.

Treat your eyes to the rest of Chris Jordan’s beautifully mind-blowing collection at his website or truly indulge by viewing his 11 minute talk at TED’s website.

Tags: 1 days worth of cups, 15 minutes, 15 minutes worth of cups, An American Self Portrait, art, artwork, Chris Jordan, coffee cups, consume, consumption, disposable, environment, garbage, paper, Picturing Excess, Running the Numbers, social issues, TED, TED Talk, waste, zeitgeist

If you had the chance to sit down with the Starbucks’ Director of Environmental Impact, what would you ask him? This thought was racing through my mind as I turned into the parking lot of Seattle’s world famous coffee company. The opportunity to meet with Starbuck’s Director Jim Hanna had come with a turn of luck. An SIS blog post titled “Investigating Recycling and Starbucks” had made its way into the coffee giant’s headquarters, and Jim had emailed me a response. Now, I was getting ready for a face-to-face interview to talk about the environment, paper cups, coffee, and Starbucks.

Like any other global company, Starbucks has fallen under scrutiny when it comes to its environmental impact. And like other global companies, they have pushed back with environmental initiatives and programs. Was Starbucks guilty of green-washing, or did the company truly care about the impact it had on our environment?

Environmentalism is essential to our core business, Jim explained while sipping a Tazo tea. At its heart, Starbucks is an agriculture business. Its success relies on a steady supply of coffee beans from around the world. The beans which Starbucks buy must meet certain quality and price considerations. Coffee farmers depend on highly specific climates and growing practices to meet those standards. Eco-harming pesticides can ruin the coffee flavor. And climate change could drastically alter the price we coffee lovers pay for a latte. For Starbucks, being green is akin to long-term survival.

Environmentalism is more than just coffee beans for Starbucks. “What about the eco-impact of disposable paper coffee cups?” I asked over my sandwich. After all, the 16 billion paper coffee cups used in the US every year add up to a lot of landfill garbage and consumed natural resources. Jim pointed out that Starbucks was the first company to offer paper coffee cups partially made from recycled content. The cups, 10% of which is post-consumer recycled fiber (PCF), is estimated to save tens of thousands of trees, a half million gallons of wastewater, and several million pounds of garbage from being trucked to landfills.

“Why only a 10% PCF cup?” I ventured. “Wouldn’t a 100% cup be 10 times better?” Jim explained that the technology to make a higher PCF content cup just isn’t viable today. The main problem stems from differences in the fibers of recycled paper. Recycled paper fibers are shorter than those in non-recycled paper. This means that a coffee cup made using recycled fibers requires more paper pulp. And as more recycled content is added – more paper is used – economists call this the law of diminishing returns. We may one day see a cup made completely of recycled paper - but the technology needs to catch up first.

The sugar coating is that the new cup technology is not patent protected. Coffee chains, local coffee stands, and even college campuses can now purchase disposable cups made of 10% recycled paper. Jim hopes that more companies will begin using the 10% PFC cup – leading to a domino effect of environmental benefits.

Of course, the post-consumer recycled cup isn’t the only solution. The “Ecotainer”, a compostable corn-based cup, was debuted in 2007 by Tully’s Coffee and International Paper. Since its introduction, the cup has been well received. Did Starbucks choose the wrong cup?

Jim pointed to some major issues with corn-based cups that didn’t fit well with Starbucks. Firstly, the compostable cup shifts the eco-responsibility from the company to the coffee-drinker. For a corn-based cup to have an effect, the consumer needs to throw the used cup into a compost bin. No compost bins around? Uh oh, then that compost cup is destined for a landfill.

For Tully’s and other local coffee shops this wasn’t a big issue – composting is a growing movement throughout Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. But Starbucks is a global company that needs global ideas, and composting just isn’t being done on a global scale …yet. That’s not to say Starbucks is anti-composting. My lunch from Starbucks Headquarters was wrapped in compost-friendly packaging. And judging by the overflowing compost bin – and the nearly empty garbage can next to it – it seemed the compost idea is a hit with corporate employees.

Jim also noted that corn-based products can have other unforeseen consequences. Mexican citizens staged riots in 2007 because of high tortilla prices brought on by high corn prices. Many blamed the high prices on a soaring demand for corn to provide for the US with biofuels. Even in the US, consumers have seen food prices increase dramatically. Considering that Starbucks serves up 2.3 billion coffee cups a year, perhaps we should all be glad for the pass on compostable cups.

By choosing a disposable cup with recycled materials, Starbucks avoids both of those problems. According to Jim, Starbucks’ 10% PFC cup helps “close the demand loop” for recycled materials and will ultimately help stimulate the recycling business – a worthy cause in my book. The recycled content hot cup also guarantees a better eco-impact than standard cups, regardless of compost bin convenience.

In the near future, Jim hopes to see even bigger environmental policies enacted at Starbucks. Over the next year, Starbucks will reestablish ceramic cups as their standard for serving coffee, and pursue strategies to offer recycling throughout their stores. The company also participates in a variety of environmental coalitions to find solutions to sustainable packaging, supply chain sustainability, and creating the ultimate “to-go” cup – one that can be fully recycled.

And for customers who bring their own cups? Jim hopes to increase the number of BYOC customers by tenfold by 2010. He wasn’t ready to share the company’s strategy to make this happen, but who knows? Maybe a Sustainability Is Sexy campaign is just what an eco-friendly Starbucks needs.

Tags: climate change, coffee, compost, compostable, consumer, content, corn, corn-based, Corportate Social Responsibility, cup, disposable, eco, eco-impact, eco-responsibility, ecotainer, effects, Environmental Director, Environmentalism, fibers, garbage, green-wash, Jim Hanna, paper, Paper Cups, post, prices, reycled, Starbucks, sustainability is sexy, to-go, wastewater

Last week, I was asked a question which completely stumped my brain. “Which is the most eco-friendly disposable cup to use?” The question was asked by a writer from CHOW magazine who was working on an article about environmentally-friendly parties. The article, Drunk on Recycling, was published today and speaks more about disposable party cups than about coffee. Nonetheless, it’s still a good article. The writer raises the question about whether or not it’s acceptable to ask guests to bring their own cup to a party. Of course, answers to this question vary. Most readers seemed hesitant to ask guests to BYOC, and elected instead to use cups from their own shelves. After all, cups are cheap and easy to come by, many said.

But that still leaves the original question, “Which is the most eco-friendly disposable cup?” After the question was posed to me, I began researching the issue. The information I found reminded me of playground argument. The paper cup guys claimed some victory by arguing that their cups take less energy and materials to make than do Styrofoam ones. The Styrofoam people fought back, asserting that their cups could be recycled, whereas paper cups were destined for a landfill. Even newly made compostable cups carried some baggage. One “green” coffee roaster complained that his compostable cups leaked. And as is pointed out in the CHOW article, a compostable cup doesn’t do any good if there isn’t a compost bin in which to put it.

In the end, I came to this conclusion: There is no disposable cup which is truly eco-friendly. Using a cup only one time is wasteful because each one-time-use requires energy and materials and produces garbage. Just as it would be silly to wear a shirt only one time, or drive a new car every commute, it shouldn’t be accepted that we use a coffee cup just once.

This is a philosophy that can be applied to many in the disposable world. I spent a good part of my young adulthood shaving with a disposable razor. It was a abhorrent experience! The razors were cheaply made and didn’t work very well. I went through Gillette’s and Mach 3’s at an alarming rate, always looking for a fresh blade to keep a clean shave. After years and years, I made the switch to an electric razor. What a relief! No more garbage, no more spending money on new razors every few weeks which meant increased savings for me, and no more worrying about a patchy shave due to a dull blade. Not only did I do something to cut down on my own waste, but I turned an experience I normally detested into something which I now can enjoy. Clever, aren’t I?

The same philosophy ought to apply to your coffee habit. Why drink out of a cheap disposable that won’t keep your coffee hot? Treat yourself by using a cup that will make your coffee pleasurable all day long. It seems to me that the most enjoyable cup to use is also the most eco-friendly. Be responsible, use a reusable coffee mug, and enjoy!

Tags: BYOC, CHOW magazine, coffee cups, compostable, disposable, eco-party, environment, paper, paper vs plastic, paper vs styrofoam, styrofoam, sustainability is sexy