The Best Part of Waking Up is No Plastic in Your Cup

For some people, the day doesn’t really begin without a morning cup of coffee or tea. Whether hot or iced, decaf or regular, homemade or store-bought, our daily beverage is a great hiding place for sneaky single-use plastic and a great place to start with going plastic-free.
In the Home
The Problem: Plastic has a way of creeping into a lot products, including packaging for coffee and tea. It’s in the plastic vacuum-sealed bag that keeps the Arabica beans fresh until their ready to be brewed. Plastic can also be found enveloping individually wrapped tea bags or even encasing the whole box. Even coffee filters, that can be composted along with the grounds, can be packaged in plastic.

​The Solution: Do some pre-cycling at the store when you’re shopping for coffee and tea products. Look for coffee and tea sold in recyclable paper (not foil- or plastic-lined) or metal tins. Bring your reusable container to purchase bulk coffee or loose tea. Try using a reusable tea ball to steep your brew. Search out coffee filters sold in paper rather than plastic packaging.

On the Go

The Problem: This is a big one -- hot beverage cups and their lids are NOT RECYCLABLE! The cups are coated with polyethylene to keep the paper cup from disintegrating. Unfortunately, this coating also prevents the cup from being recyclable. It’s estimated that 50 billion paper coffee (and tea) cups are being thrown away in the USA every year. eCO2 Greetings created this infographic to illustrate what it would look like if those 50 billion cups were piled up -- a mountain 701 meters high! Then there’s the issue of a plastic lid, the swizzle stick for stirring and the ridiculous little green stick that Starbucks gives you to put in the opening of your lid so your beverage doesn’t spill. 

Iced beverages are arguably worse for the environment with the plastic cup, lid and straw, all of which are non-recyclable. And don’t be fooled by the so-called “eco” biodegradable or compostable cups. These are only compostable in a commercial compost facility like Danny’s Dumpster, so unless the shop where you bought your beverage offers composting or you have access to a commercial composting through Danny’s or CompostNow, this cup is headed to the landfill as well.

The Solution: Bring your own reusable cup or mug. Most places will happily pour your beverage into your own cup and may even give you a discount for bringing your own, like Green Sage Cafe, which donates a portion of its proceeds to GreenWorks when you use your own cup.

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In the Workplace

The Problem: No matter the time of day, you can expect to find a coffee and tea setup at work meetings. Some offices have coffee stations for employees and guests to get their caffeine fix at any time. Made for convenience, these setups can be full of plastic from individual creamers, stirrers, cups and lids.
And, don’t even get me started on the single-use Keurig or K-cups. According to the Story of Stuff, “The amount of K-Cups trashed into landfills as of today could wrap around the planet more than 10 times! More broadly, almost 25% of American homes owned a single cup brewing machine. That’s over 75 million homes brewing single use pods like K-cups everyday, multiple times a day. This means that tens of billions of nonreusable, nonrecyclable plastic pods have ended up in landfills.”

The Solution: Stock your office kitchen with reusable mugs and spoons. If you’re heading to a meeting at another location, bring your own mug. Follow the pre-cycling steps above when purchasing break room supplies. 

​And for goodness sake, kick that Keurig to the curb or invest in some reusable K-cups.

Thanks for Minding Your Plastic! There's still time to support GreenWorks' plastic reduction efforts. Help us reach our goal of raising $5,000 during Mind Your Plastic May.

​Sincerely,
Dawn Chavez
Executive Director
​Asheville GreenWorks