Recycling isn’t the Best Option?
Working for a company that strives to become Green, system-wide, I find that any stories about recycling grab my attention. I happened upon an article in the business section of the Seattle Times which explores the recyclable level of paper coffee cups. I was immediately impressed at the apparent dedication of Starbucks toward a greener future.
“Starbucks wants to expand that by 2015, when its goal is for all the communities where it owns stores to be able to recycle coffee cups. It’s a Grande order, considering Starbucks’ reach and the 3 billion paper cups it goes through each year. The challenge is to convince mills that coffee cups are decent fodder for boxes and other products they make. So far, mill executives remain sceptical, saying coffee cups take longer, and therefore cost more, to process than do other recycled items like cardboard boxes.”
You can check out the full article here, but to summarize, Starbucks is exploring all of their options to get their cups recycled. I can see why they’d want to pursue this, being responsible for adding 3 billion cups a year to the landfill is quite the stain on an otherwise great reputation.
As I was reading this article, I got an email from our Founder and CEO, Brian Scuadamore. As part of our jump towards greener practises, every employee at the Junktion has added a banner to our email signatures which displays “My blue and green commitment:” and Brian’s jumped out at me:
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 As of May 1st, I no longer use disposable water bottles or coffee cups. What’s yours? |
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| Brian Scudamore | Founder & CEO | ||
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I read this and came to the same conclusion that the article did…stop using paper cups. Why not use the same time, effort and money that was going into composting and recycling paper cups to discourage the use of paper cups altogether? The alternatives are everywhere, and some even look the same as the paper cup!
This solution actually seems easier, and is even more environmentally-friendly than recycling!
Unlimited Use Ceramic Cup
One Time Use Paper Cup
