Make That Coffee Cup Porcelain, Not Paper

paper cup in sand coney island photo
Jason Todd Getty Images

TreeHugger Emeritus Ruben Anderson has discovered an amazing material: "it can provide fuel, or be easily processed into one of our most versatile building materials; it can sequester CO2 to slow global warming; be harvested for food; increase ecosystem health and biodiversity by providing habitat for animals, birds, plants and insects; slow damaging storm-water runoff; purify water; and help remediate contaminated soils. The feedstock is free and abundant, and maintenance on the system is negligible.

Or, we can destroy trees for pulp to make paper coffee cups, which, after 15 minutes of use, we throw in the garbage can. Then, we pick the cups up with pollution-belching trucks and throw them in a dump, where they rot and create more greenhouse gases."

porcelain version of standard cup photo
we are happy to serve you ceramic cups

He writes in the Tyee that there are a lot of problems besides litter with paper cups; the plastic liners could be endocrine disruptors, the lids destroy the flavour, and ", trees are elegant and amazing organisms that deserve better than to be pulped into coffee cups -- think Stradivarius."

Ruben notes that coffee tastes better in porcelain. "let's throw away the smell of bleached paper and the cuts from sharp plastic lids. Once again, it turns out that living sustainably is actually more joyful -- not just better for the world, but better for us." ::The Tyee

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