There’s a growing movement towards using eco-friendly coffee cups, also called green coffee cups or biodegradable coffee cups. Whatever way you prefer to refer to them, the eco-cup breaks down quickly in a landfill. By comparison, a plastic coffee cup can last for up to a century before all of its elements are completely gone.
To further compound the problem less than one percent of disposable coffee cups are ever recycled. And even then, the coating on some the cups makes them difficult to recycle.
So now you’re sold on buying only eco-friendly coffee cups and doing your bit for the environment. How do you choose the right kind of cup?
Part A: What are Your Options for Eco-Friendly Coffee Cups?
Your options come down to two choices: a recyclable single-use disposable cup or a cup that can be used many times. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are equally friendly to the environment.
Many cafes and coffee shops now allow customers to bring in reusable cups for their coffee fix. These shops may also sell their own branded coffee mugs (both open and sealed).
As for environmental solutions to a single-use coffee cup, you should look for ones that identify themselves as compost-friendly coffee cups, single-use plastic cups, and reusable cups with disposable lids.
What kind of reusable cups are available?
The great news is that reusable cups come in all shapes, sizes, colors and uses, so you have a lot of options. Let’s walk through some of the major kinds of green-friendly disposable or reusable coffee cups:
- Reusable coffee cups. Made from metal, silicone or plastics, you have seen these sort of cups for sale in many coffee shops like Starbucks. With a quick rinse and dry they are good to be used over and over again.
- Collapsible coffee cups. Perfect if space is a factor in your decision making, these can fold up with a downward push on the cup’s rim. Like the reusable cup, these are also made from a variety of materials.
- Joco cups. This eco-friendly brand makes it a point to use no plastic in their cup designs. Made from borosilicate glass makes the Joco cup very resistant to breaking, heat, light and thermal loss. A silicone sleeve on the outside protects your grip from your hot java. These come in a variety of creative styles and designs.
- Bamboo coffee cups. Bamboo is a natural wood which makes it an ideal ecological friend to the planet. The fibres are completely biodegrdable and dishwasher safe too. The one issue with a bamboo coffee cup is that you can’t pop it into the microwave to reheat your beverage.
From most reusable to least, the Ecoffee cup reigns supreme, followed by Stojo Pocket Cup, KeepCup Original, Joco Reusable Glass Coffee Cup and last but not least the Bodum Vacuum Travel Mug.
What kind of disposable but environmentally friendly cups are available?
Regardless of which choice to you you will want to stay away from a coffee cup that uses plastic in its manufacturing. Tossing these kind of cups into the trash will mean years slowly breaking down in a garbage dump.
Here are your shopping options:
- Bio-degradable cups. Made with a plant-based polylactic acid, these cups break down into an inert mulch over the course of 12-14 weeks. They need to be recycled, disposed of in a facility that shreds them, then mixes them with organic recyclable material. Over time the mixture breaks down into compost, which is then used for soil.
What criteria do I use for choosing the best reusable coffee cup?
A lot of this comes down to personal preference and your lifestyle. You want to consider the impact on the environment, the volume the cup can hold, whether you will need to carry it around outside (and thus could cause spillage), how many times a day you will likely refill it, what material the cup is made of, if it’s dishwasher safe or hand wash only, and finally, whether you actually need coffee!
Which material is best for a reusable coffee cup – glass, metal or ceramic?
All three are valid candidates for a eco-friendly, long-lasting coffee cup. Design, color, holding capacity are natural influences on your decision.
Ideally a bio-degradable coffee cup would be the best environmental choice. One made from bamboo is a great candidate, as bamboo is a natural substance and can break down easily and harmlessly in the environment.
What brands are the most eco friendly reusable coffee mug?
Some of the most eco friendly reusable coffee mugs are Ecoffee cup, Fressko, Joco and Ecoffee Cup William Morris Bamboo Cup .
Which reusable coffee mug is best?
The top three reusable coffee mugs are:
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- Yeti and other comparable brands
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- The Contigo AUTOSEAL West Loop Stainless Steel Travel Mug
- The Tefal Travel Mug.
These brands of mugs will keep your coffee piping hot for hours. They can be purchased from Amazon, Walmart, or Target.
Which type of coffee cup is most environmentally friendly, styrofoam, paper or ceramic?
You should consider two things when tackling this question: do you care more about the amount of energy and resources needed to manufacture the cup, or the lasting nature of the cup after you are done using it?
For example, a ceramic coffee mug is ultimately the most environmentally friendly. You can use it at home, on the go and at the office. You can wash it and use it hundreds of times. If treated well, a ceramic, steel or plastic coffee mug can last many, many years.
Styrofoam cups are terrible for the environment but ironically are the best choice for a disposable cup since it costs less and uses less resources and energy to create.
But in a battle between styrofoam and a bio-degradable cup, environmentally speaking, the bio-degradable cup will win.
25 billion styrofoam coffee cups are tossed into the garbage every year in America. Worse still, styrofoam takes an estimated 500 years (at least!) to completely break down.
Which coffee cup type takes the least amount of energy to manufacture?
Glass coffee cups such as those made by Hocking use the least amount of energy to manufacture followed closely by styrofoam cups.
What kinds of coffee cups are waste free?
Waste free coffee cups are typically reusable coffee cups that are waste free and made out of matte with thermos layers. Typical waste-free coffee cups are those which are reusable, such as the brand names of KeepCup, JOCO Cup, La Bontazza and Cupit by Kahla. By reusing the same coffee cup just 15 times can help the environment and they come in various sizes, shapes, designs and materials. Examples of such materials are that of hydro flask coffee cups, matte coffee cups, cups with thermos layers, cups comprised of bamboo or corn – choose the one that is right for you!
Part B: Facts About Disposable Coffee Cups & Their Impact on Our Environment
Are disposable coffee cups environmentally friendly?
Unfortunately they are not.
Disposable coffee cups might look like paper but they’re usually lined with polyethylene, the most widely used plastic in the world. You want to move away from using these. The time that it takes for polyethylene cups to break down in a landfill is somewhere between 20 to 30 years.
And as mentioned earlier, the styrofoam coffee cup can last for 500 years or longer after you’ve tossed it away.
There are several plastic free coffee cup options to choose from such as paper cups, polyethylene lined disposable cups, the previously mentioned Joco cups, KeepCups, Planet Cups and the always reliable Thermos, your granddad’s choice in his day.
Speaking of refillable, bringing your own Thermos for to-go coffee is another way to reduce your plastic footprint.
How can you tell between a recyclable cup and one that’s not?
Since the plastic coating of a polyethylene coffee cup makes the cup ineligible for a recycling program, they effectively can’t be thought of as environmentally friendly. Most people don’t realize this.
In fact, only around 1% of disposable coffee cups turned into recycling centers are actually recycled. That is a tremendous amount of time wasted for recycling centers, and also for the people throwing these cups away and thinking that they are doing something good for the environment.
You will know if you can recycle the paper coffee cup when you see the “recycle” logo on the cup. This is the only way to know for sure that the coffee cup you are using can be fully recycled at a local center.
As well, a biodegradable logo will tell you whether the cup is able to be fully broken down in 12-18 months.
How many coffee cups are manufactured every year?
500 billion disposable cups (including 2.5 billion coffee cups) are produced every year. The average household discards around 70 disposable cups every year.
How many disposable cups are thrown away each year?
Worldwide there are around 500 billion disposable cups thrown away each year. In the US alone, there are around 25 billion styrofoam cups thrown away yearly. That’s 3.5 cups for every human being on the planet.
How much waste do disposable coffee cups create?
If every person had 1 coffee in a disposable cup every day, every person would be responsible for 23 lbs of waste for that year.