Compost me!
A week ago, during a lunch break, I stopped at Starbucks that is across the street from Baruch College. The huge line of nearly 40 inpatient students amused me. It is a second coffee chain on that street and there are thousands of others that never cease to fail in sales during breakfast or lunch traffic.
Almost every morning I make myself a cup of coffee. I never feel guilty about it. All my coffee grinds get composed and my favorite coffee mug gets washed – zero waste, literally. I made series of attempts to prologue my zero waste contribution by bringing a reusable coffee cup to work. However, after 40 min in a subway, my coffee would get too warm. An attempt to carry the cup, apparently Starbucks gives its customers a discount if they bring a reusable cup, also failed because sometimes I just wanted to have a little purse that unfortunately cannot hold a giant metallic mug.
Yet, every time when I would buy a cup of coffee from a street vendor or everyone’s beloved Starbucks I could not help but experience a sensation of guilt. Guilt began from the moment my lips touched a plastic lid. How many of those lids are used daily? Are they end up in our landfills? Do people understand that 5 minutes of caffeine or any other type of liquid pleasure in a plastic container covered with a plastic lid will stay on this Earth with our future generation for 500 or even 1000 years?
I began to wonder if there are any coffee chains or maybe perhaps a local coffee shop that pays attention to the small eco detail such as, well at least, a plastic lid. Last week I stumbled upon a coffee chain called Blue Bottle Coffee near Bryan Park. When I was ready to make my guilty sip from a plastic lid, I’ve noticed a few words on it “Compost me!” Apparently, aside from having cozy French patisserie style interior and delicious coffee, this 15 years old coffee chain based in California, is one of the leading eco-friendly coffee chain in the world. They use not only compostable plastic lids but also compostable straws and paper cups.
In this article, I would like to explore what are eco-friendly plastic lids and paper cups. The founder of Blue Bottle lives in California, I will contact him by email and in the meanwhile will interview employees. Also, I want to speak to their customers and see if that little sentence “Compost me!” contributes to their devotional support. In addition, I want to use data from www.nyc.gov, www.recyvlingadvocates.org to educate a reader about waste statistics that are based on scientific research.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/16/takeaway-coffee-cups-recycle-environment-waste
http://www.recyclingadvocates.org/single-use-coffee-cup-reduction/