There is no doubt Australians are having a love affair with coffee and our baristas deliver some of the best coffee in the world. There is an abundance of cafes, restaurants or take-away joints to fulfil your coffee desires, but at what cost? You need to drink your coffee out of something and chances are, if you are on the go, that something is a disposable coffee cup. Whilst we may have been led to believe that most of these are biodegradable and recyclable, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Let’s have a look at the impact our daily take-away coffee has and why we should re-think using disposable cups and instead invest in a re-usable coffee cup.
What disposable coffee cups do to our environment:
- It is estimated that 500 billion disposable cups are discarded to landfill every year. That’s one million cups a minute! Just let that number sink in, it’s mind-blowing.
- Disposable coffee cups are marketed as paper however they are lined with polyethylene, a type of plastic. This means they are incredibly difficult to recycle. It can take up to 50 years for these cups to biodegrade in landfill…….50 years!
- They leave a huge environmental footprint. We’ve established they can’t be recycled, however they often litter our earth and end up in waterways where they break apart and are consumed by marine life who mistake them for food, which can cause their untimely death…….very sad indeed. Even the production of the cups will impact trees, oil and hence our environment.
What disposable coffee cups do to your health:
- Disposable cups are lined with plastics that may be harmful to your health. Most contain BPA and phthalates known to disrupt hormones within the body and are also sprayed with toxic dyes. No thanks.
Re-usable coffee cup, yes please!
- Using your re-usable coffee cup might get a discount on your coffee! Bonus! Many cafes have jumped on the re-usable cup movement and will offer a discount for using one. Penny pinchers rejoice.
- Plus it’s uber cool to carry a re-usable coffee cup. You can hold your head high and strut out of your coffee shop displaying your glorious re-usable coffee cup, knowing that you are playing your part in saving our planet.
April is eco month with Earth Day falling on April 22nd. The Earth Day campaign for 2018 is to end plastic pollution. What better time to ditch the plastic disposable cups and do your bit for our planet by riding the re-usable cup wave.
