We Need To Talk About Single-Use Cups
For those of us who love specialty coffee, there is a paper and plastic elephant in the room we all need to talk about. It’s one of the most intense causes of waste in our industry, filling landfills, decimating our planet - all for that devilishly desirable thing that our dopamine receptors fail to prevent us from falling into the trap of - convenience.
When I founded Bar Nine, we knew this was a problem we needed to solve. The amount of single-use cups in coffee has gotten extreme since the popularization of the Starbucks model and has only worsened with time, amplified to extraordinary degrees by the Covid-19 pandemic. When everything had to be “to-go,” billions and billions of single use cups were added to the wildly exorbitant amount already making their ways to landfills where they will take decades to decompose. Before this, I was astonished to learn that over 5 billion paper cups were thrown away from coffee shops in 2018 alone - just in the United States.
In 2014, my friend Ashley Tomlinson wrote a salient piece about this, where she dove into the anatomy of a paper cup. It was harrowing to read then, and it’s only more sobering now. Convenience, short term profits, and corporate greed have all been catalysts for this huge problem, impacting the world at large to a magnitude that, when looked at objectively, is a crisis. Up until the 20th century, the idea of a “to-go” coffee didn’t exist. This is a new problem, a byproduct of both the Industrial Revolution as well as the large popularization in the U.S. of Italian-style espresso drinks in the 1980s, permeating our culture and making it perfectly ok to just conveniently toss that cup after its use (the great irony here is the culture with which these drinks were inspired by had no such thing as a to-go cup, everything was enjoyed at the espresso bar).
CHOICES MATTER
When I started Bar Nine, I considered the options. I was impressed that Charles Babinski and Kyle Glanville had adopted a reusable cup model for their pop up at Sqirl, and I had experimented with reusable cups at a cafe I used to manage in Hermosa, Planet Earth Eco Cafe. I thought that we could start with compostable cups with a glass option for those that wanted to bring it back. Quickly I realized this thinking was a mistake. In order to effectuate change, you had to commit 100%, to “skate to where the puck is going” and embrace the positive or fallout that came with it. I was reminded of the bold choices Apple made in dropping the Floppy Disk Drive, later the CD-ROM drive, and even later any ports at all. If you want to embrace the future, you do it today. You can’t wait for someone to solve the problem for you.
Today, the problem is now a crisis. Covid made this major problem into something far-worse, and the rise of disposables is fed by that innately ideal state consumers often look for - the ghastly beast that is Convenience. Attending SCA Expo last week, which was a beautiful experience about community in so many ways, I was taken aback at how many 4 oz disposable cups were run through just at that event alone. I am no stranger to this reality. It is impractical to use reusable cups in high volume events, but what struck me was that there was a nonchalance with which vendors shared more and more cups. At this major event globally, held once a year for specialty coffee, there were 10s of thousands cups wasted. I never had anyone offer to refill my little 4 oz paper cup from a previous exhibitor. Everyone focused on getting me a fresh one, and every time I accepted one I felt more and more guilty.
THE TRUE COST OF DISPOSABLES
How do we reconcile our need for convenience with the fact that we are destroying resources to make our lives just a tiny bit easier? Think about what happens in the production of paper or plastic cups. In the case of paper, much as it is with paper for writing or any of the other ubiquitous uses of it, we are cutting down trees. Real trees, those that bring oxygen to our planet, to its eco-system, and take years to grow. These are cut with reckless abandon so you cannot be hassled with “dealing” with a cup you can’t throw away. What is the cost of this?
Now, there are indeed many companies working to solve this problem, but we have reached a point where it is the proverbial band-aid over a gun shot wound. For the cafes that have adopted the #GlassRevolution, they are now being hit with higher costs due to large tariffs and taxes on bringing glass jars into the country, thanks in no small part to the disastrous trade policies of the Trump administration (another reason to avoid that authoritarian nightmare in our not-so-distant future). There are amazing companies such as REDI who have developed a sterilization device for reusable cups that utilizes UV Light, and other companies trying to innovate to solve this problem. The real issue is, if our consumer base is not aware this is an issue, how can we effectively solve this problem?
Clearly this is not unique to the coffee industry alone. As we all DoorDash or Postmates our orders from restaurants, we are contributing to this issue every day. But it is in coffee shops that the major and needless waste permeates. That is because it is a lovely psychoactive drug that I, like many others, have a form of addiction to. I don’t have any issues with that idea and think its health benefits far outweigh the opportunity for my dentist to berate me over my coffee drinking habits. I get it, it can stain teeth. I’ll take that small risk to help prevent cognitive decline, boost my mental health, increase my performance in athletic activities, and boost my immune system with incredible antioxidants. Coffee is good for you, so keep drinking it. The question is, what vessel should you be drinking it out of?
DO YOU WANT YOUR COFFEE TO TASTE GREAT?
Finally, as a lover of this refined and beautiful drink, making its way from seed to a fruit to a fermented “bean” to a roasted product with chemical compounds that dwarf those found even in wine, I want my coffee to taste great. There is no reality where paper or plastic aids in the taste of this beautiful seasonal ingredient. Whether you are bringing your own cup to your favorite cafe, are ordering in to avoid the needless waste, or are supporting a business that is adopting reusables only - every choice that every guest makes every day matters. Drink tastier coffee and stop throwing those cups out. There’s a bigger impact to that choice than we ever think about on the daily.
Here’s to making better choices, together.
