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Eat & Drink

The Case Against Styrofoam Cups

Posted by Tim / March 22, 2005

10 Comments

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Why is it that chains like Timothy's as well as independent coffee shops like Shai's in Kensington Market still serve their coffee is styrofoam, er, polystyrene cups only? Haven't they noticed that Starbucks, and recently Second Cup are now only serving up java in the paper variety?

I don't ask the question just for environmental reasons. First and foremost, it's a health issue. Research shows that drinking hot beverages in styrofoam cups is bad for you. Rather than repeat the claims here, I'll refer you to various articles on the subject.

The sad thing is that most coffee shop owners probably don't know any better. The person I spoke to at Shai's fained ignorance on the matter. He claims they chose styrofoam because it makes the cups easier to hold.

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10 Comments

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catherine / March 23, 2005 at 09:42 am
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That's so depressing. I'm busy fighting the war against people using paper OR styrofoam when they are STAYING IN to drink their coffee. And how am I going to get anyone to care about that, when places are using 1980s coffee cups and the customers are ok with that??!! geez. in both cases, i wish people would stop and think for two seconds!
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Jus / March 23, 2005 at 11:24 am
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2 words: Travel Mug. Cut down on any extra drink wastes by sporting your own mug and stick it to the styrafoams and paper cups of the nation.
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garth breaks / March 23, 2005 at 12:02 pm
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I've never understood why more coffee shops aren't using true bio-degradable cups for their coffee-to-go clientele.

http://www.clovernook.org/prod02.htm
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tim / March 24, 2005 at 02:20 pm
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$$$$ and ignorance would be my guess. but at the end of the day, if enough consumers demanded it, they'd switch.
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johnt / March 25, 2005 at 03:19 pm
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good for the environment ... yes, but i choose coffee houses with paper cups because i can't stand the screech of my fingers on the styrofoam. fingers on a blackboard anyone?
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Dan / August 17, 2008 at 09:53 am
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the jury is still out on the detrimental impact of drinking from a stryofoam.

as far as the environmental side of things are concerned, the jury is still out on that. the only advantage paper cups have is that they degrade much faster than styrofoam. styrofoam costs next to nothing to produce and its production doesn't harm the environment.

I may also point out that styrofoam cups can be recycled almost anywhere yet paper cups are banned from many municipalities for reasons that I'm still not clear on. (my local' officials simply state that the wax in used cups "clogs" the "machines".
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nishka / March 23, 2009 at 04:19 pm
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there is a company that could help...please help get the word out!
TacoDelMar no longer uses styrofoam or plastic bags...they use all biodegradable containers from this company www.trellisearth.com
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spellingjerk / August 22, 2009 at 04:22 pm
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"feigned", not "fained"
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leo / August 27, 2009 at 06:58 pm
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i drank coffee from a styrafoam cup today and didn't feel like i normaly do wasn't good for me. i am concerned about cancer. i don't want to get that. lots of people are dieing from it all around. i hope that these cups can be taken off the market.
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ev replying to a comment from Dan / October 13, 2009 at 12:15 pm
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woa woa woa...styrofoam is manufactured with petroleum, a process highly detrimental to the enviroment and non-renewable. styrofoam is expensive to recycle, and though i don't know where you live, its very rare to find a place willing to recycle that junk around here.
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