Avoiding disposable cups saves energy, water, trees

BY MOLLY SMITH FOR GREENING OF OIL

I, like America, run on Dunkin’. In fact, without my morning cup of joe, I probably couldn’t even walk, let alone run. My day doesn’t start until I’ve made the laborious trek up Cornell’s infamous Libe Slope (an American equivalent to Everest and obviously overlooked by Ezra Cornell in his vision for a university on the hill) to the nearest library and its café. Once there, I order a cup of plain coffee, add a few sprinkles of cinnamon and voila! My day begins.

As a Natural Resources major, one passionate about sustainability and green living and newly charged with contributing to this column, I started to wonder about my morning caffeine habit. If I buy one cup of coffee in a disposable cup five days a week, how many do I use in a semester? What’s my environmental impact?

A few quick calculations and estimates concluded that I use about 312 disposable cups a year. What about everyone else who visits the café? In New York? The country?

16 billion paper cups = 9.4 million trees

According to carbonrally.com/, a website dedicated to educating the public about green issues, Americans drink more than 100 billion cups of coffee every year, 16 billion of which are purchased in disposable paper cups. Placed end-to-end, these cups would wrap around the Earth five times and weigh around 900 million pounds, equal to the combined weight of 927, 747 airplanes.

It is estimated that in 2010, 23 billion disposable cups will be used in the United State alone. To make those 23 billion cups, 9.4 million trees will have to be cut down to harvest the 1.4 million tons of wood needed, equivalent to 352 Central Park’s worth of trees.

Energy to power 77,000 U.S. homes for a year

To process those cups, 7 trillion Btu, or British thermal units, will be used; the same amount that could power 77,000 American homes for a year. And finally, 5.7 billion gallons of water will be used in the manufacturing process, equal to about 85,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Then it’s estimated that 4 billion pounds of CO2 are released into the atmosphere during the production and distribution of coffee cups. If a single, mature tree can absorb an average of 48 pounds per year of CO2, it would take 83.3 million trees to soak up all the CO2 released in the cup-manufacturing process annually.

Use a thermos

One way to offset using all those coffee cups without forgoing the necessary caffeine in the morning is to carry and use your own thermos. In fact, a lot of coffee shops, including Starbucks, offer discounts if you bring your own drinking vessel. I do have a mug, but like many well-meaning conservationists, often forget to bring it with me. A

Unfortunately, some of the higher quality thermoses can be expensive, and with the cost of living green already high, it’s often undesirable to shell out extra bucks for a thermos when the cost of the disposable cup is included with the coffee.

A personal test

In an effort to truly understand my coffee cup footprint, I decided to challenge myself to drink only from a ceramic mug I already owned. I would not spend the extra money on another personal item like an expensive thermos, and if I forgot the mug, I wouldn’t buy coffee.

On Monday morning I got up, donned my heavy winter coat and hat and walked confidently out the door. Five minutes later I realized I’d forgotten my mug. Not an hour into day one of the experiment and I had already suffered a setback.

I went back for it. During my trek to the café, however, I battled with how to carry it. Going green seemed to result in a more cumbersome commute.

Throwing it into my bag was okay at the beginning of the day when it was clean; carrying it in my hands would be alright until I had other items to lug around.

This was going to take an adjustment period. But there was no way around it; I had to have my coffee.

As expected, I saved money at the café by providing my own cup, a small victory, and left to go to work.

Most thermoses and mugs come with lids; mine has none, but even with a lid there’s a sense of urgency that comes along with not wanting to spill any precious brew. However, after a few scalding sips I made it to work spill-free.

As surprising sense of comfort

Being inside and sipping from my own mug added a surprising sense of comfort. It took a slight edge off ‘business as usual.’

Then when I was done I simply rinsed the cup and tossed it back in my bag, ready for the next day.

The rest of the week followed pretty much the same trajectory. On Tuesday I forgot my cup altogether and couldn’t get my coffee. It was tough but I stuck to my challenge.

Overall, carrying a mug around has its benefits and its setbacks. I saved about a dollar on coffee costs during the week, but more importantly cut my garbage use by five coffee cups and cardboard sleeves. Going green never tasted so good first thing in the morning.

A challenge for you

I challenge all our readers to give this a shot. I know first hand how difficult it can be to change your routine, but in the big scheme of things, this small effort is much easier to incorporate than some of the larger ones.

About Molly Smith

Molly Smith hails from a small rare-breeds farm in Woolrich, Pennsylvania. Growing up she was an active participant in 4-H, Project Grass, Envirothon and Dairy Promotion. After her graduation from the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in 2007, Smith moved to New York to begin undergraduate work at Cornell University. As a Natural Resources major in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Science, Smith has found ample opportunities to develop her interests in sustainable agriculture, conservation ecology and wildlife biology. On campus, she is an active participant in Forword Women’s Literary Magazine, Society for Natural Resources and Conservation and the Developmental Fencing Club. When not working, Molly enjoys rock climbing, yoga, playing scrabble and discovering new music.

Contact Molly Smith at mls379@cornell.edu.