Starbucks Cups -- Friend to the Environment?

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Starbucks Cups -- Friend to the Environment?

Posted by: Dr. Mercola
October 09 2007 | 42,048 views

Starbucks promotes recycling on the 2.3 billion paper cups it uses every year, and has even received a national award for using cups that contain 10 percent recycled material.

The cups’ sleeves also carry the slogan “Help us help the planet.”

However, despite their environmentally friendly image, Starbucks cups are not recyclable in most U.S. cities. Why? Because the cups have a plastic coating designed to prevent leaking, which makes it unable to be recycled with other paper products.

The plastic cups are not accepted by most recyclers either, including Waste Management, North America's largest recycler.

According to Starbucks, a more-recyclable cup is not an option, but the cup manufacturer said the cups could be made recyclable for about double the cost.

Meanwhile, the cups could be recycled if Starbucks tracked down a recycler that was willing to take them, and arranged a recycling program with them.

Starbucks points out that they do take strides to be environmentally friendly, including offering reusable mugs for in-store customers, selling reusable travel mugs in their stores, and giving a 10-cent discount to customers who bring in their own cups.

According to a Starbucks spokeswoman, more than 17 million U.S. and Canadian customers took advantage of the 10-cent discount for bringing their own cup in 2006, which saved 674,000 pounds of paper.

The Columbus Dispatch September 17, 2007

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The 2.3 BILLION paper cups that Starbucks uses every year is a huge burden on the environment, and I believe it’s up to the company to come up with a socially responsible solution.

It's a step in the right direction, that cups are made with a small portion of recycled material, but the real issue is that most of these cups are still ending up in landfills because they can’t be recycled. So even those of you who have good intentions and attempt to recycle the cups will likely be unable to.

The waste of these cups is only the tip of the iceberg, though.

The article mentions that the cups are lined with a plastic coating to prevent leaking. I don’t know exactly what’s in that plastic coating, but I’d venture to say it may contain one or more endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are commonly used in plastics (including the plastic linings in canned foods and soda cans), and that could potentially leach into your hot beverage.

And then there is the problem with what’s inside those cups…

The Essential Info You Need on Coffee Drinks

First let’s address the coffee itself. There is a massive debate about whether coffee is healthy or harmful going on, and there are studies coming out constantly that attest to coffee’s negative health effects, and then its positive ones.

It appears that drinking coffee may interfere with your body's ability to keep homocysteine and cholesterol levels in check, most likely by inhibiting the action of the vitamins folate, B12, or B6. Coffee has also been previously associated with an increased risk of stroke and rheumatoid arthritis.

While I do believe that eliminating, or at the very least limiting, coffee should be one of your goals, if you are in the midst of other dietary changes such as those outlined in Take Control of Your Health, eliminating coffee can be put toward the bottom of your list, and you should strive to eliminate soda and fruit juice from your beverage list first as these are FAR more harmful to your health than coffee. It is important to have an understanding of the priority of the changes you need to make.

The exception here is for pregnant women. Caffeine is a stimulant drug that easily passes through your placenta to the developing fetus and is also transferred through breast milk, which is why pregnant women should NEVER drink coffee.

Now, if everyone were walking into Starbucks and ordering plain black coffee, that would be one thing. But most people are probably not.

Most people are probably ordering the heavily sweetened coffee drinks, complete with high-fructose corn syrup (now the NUMBER ONE source of calories in the American diet) or, just as bad, the artificial sweetener Splenda.

To top it off, that coffee drink likely contains both pasteurized cream and milk, neither of which are health foods in my opinion.

If you choose to drink coffee, there are a number of things I would suggest to lessen its impact on your health and the environment:

If you go out for coffee, bring you own glass or ceramic mug. You’ll save a paper or plastic cup, and avoid being exposed to any plastics chemicals.

Drink only organic coffee. Coffee is a heavily sprayed crop, so drinking organic coffee might reduce or eliminate your exposure to toxic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. It will also help the people working in the coffee fields, as they will be exposed to fewer pesticides as well.

Try "Swiss Water Process" decaf. If you are going to drink decaffeinated coffee, be sure that it uses a non-chemical based method of decaffeination. The "Swiss Water Process" is a patented method and is your best choice. Most of the major brands are chemically decaffeinated, even if it says "naturally decaffeinated" right on the container. If you are unsure of the methods, contact the manufacturer.

Avoid additives such as sugar, artificial sweeteners, and milk or cream. These are actually much worse for you than the coffee itself.

When making coffee at home, only use unbleached filters. The bright white ones, which most people use, are chlorine bleached and some of this chlorine will be extracted from the filter during the brewing process.