Why is there corn in my coffee

Penny says – Oh no! Is my coffee drinking habit destroying the planet?

According to several sources it might be…

To-go-coffee cups are often made from some recycled paper material but are lined with a plastic coating ensuring that hot coffee stays in the cup and not on your lap. This lining makes these cups non-biodegradable. To make things worse, plastic is traditionally made from petroleum (polyethylene) arguably a non-sustainable resource. Although this plastic is not biodegradable it is often used in single use products like cups, plates, and disposable cutlery. We use it once and through it into the trash, it ends up in landfills taking us space potentially forever.

I do not know if the landfills are filling up, nor do I understand what happens to thousands of kilograms of garbage in plastic bags over time as it sits in landfills (I imagine there are some seriously nasty smelling oozing processes underway but I can also imagine a child’s plastic toy still looking remarkably like its original form 40 years after being put in a landfill).

I am really in need of a cup of coffee so I will try to get to my point. If coffee cups and the like are going to be tossed out after one use – they should be made from materials from a sustainable source that is can biodegrade in a landfill or in a compost facility.

According to some sources – plant based plastics are the perfect solution. Corn based plastics are safe for cup lining and apparently biodegrade (http://www.greenhome.com/).

However it may not be as simple as that – in order to get these bio-plastics to breakdown they need to be in the “right” environment. A compost facility that has the specific heat and moisture requirements. These cups will not break down in your composter at home. But if every coffee cup was shipped to a compost facility they could be broken down. See this article for more info - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/plastic.html

An alternative that takes some getting used too – Baggase is the biomass pulp like material remaining after sugarcane has been processed to extract its sweet juice. Baggase is most recognizable to consumers as those brown trays that hold four to-go coffees.

Baggase is a sustainable, biodegradable re-purposed material. PERFECT – if only it could hold coffee? Well it can but the cups made out of it loose a bit of their rigidity when hot liquids are poured into them they will not leak just become a little more dynamic and potentially difficult to hang on to. My solution is to use a baggase coffee cup sleeve over the baggase cup to maintain rigidity when hot.

( http://dgs.greenhome.com/products/kitchen/compostableware/ ) To buy baggase products follow this link. Of course my perfect to-go coffee cup is not yet on the market but there are some close seconds and other compostable plastic products. But there is governmental support for those of you inclined to come-up with a solution to our to-go coffee cup quandary (http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2007/0709bio_e.html )

Eco- conscience coffee shops are using the pricey Corn-lined cups - but are these really any better than the polyethylene alternative if they end up in the landfill? Maybe just slightly but they are also more expensive than traditional cups.

OK so plastic that is made from a sustainable resource is a good thing especially when it is bio-degradable. The problem is that we usually through out our to-go coffee cups in the garbage bins on the street or in the office or even at home. These bins are lined with petroleum product – Polyethylene - plastic bags that are not biodegradable and yet super cheep and practical barrier between us and the gooey garbage. So even when you pay the extra money for the eco-plastics if you do not ensure they are going to the compost centre to biodegrade and be turned into fertilizer – are you really doing the environment any favors?

I am all for saving money and bringing your own mug offers discounted coffee prices (10 to 20 cents per beverage) but you are stuck carrying the mug long after the decadent coffee is gone. I say put the extra effort into buying a good reusable coffee mug that fits in your purse or briefcase or backpack when it is not in use. Why not buy a bio-plastic mug and be sure to return to appropriate composting facility when finished with it. For green products including the ladybug mug go to greenhome For an example of a composting facility

Bulk orders of corn-plastic mugs with low price points for you folks that own businesses that require branding see Fairware a Vancouver based company with lots of eco-friendly products.

If you have 10 minutes why not stop and have your coffee to stay - using one of the ceramic cups provided by the coffee shop. I know there are still detergents needed to wash these cups but hopefully the business you get your coffee from are using eco-friendly cost efficient detergents. Taking a break and actually resting for a few minutes while you enjoy a cup-a-joe will likely decrease your stress levels, increase your mental alertness and help you be more efficient at accomplishing tasks for the remainder of your day. That’s right I am telling you that taking a break and sitting still will help the environment and probably save you time.

For all of you gardeners out there – Starbucks has a bucket of coffee grounds that are for your garden – you just stop by your local Starbucks and pickup a bucket of grounds free of charge of course and I recommend you bring your own re-usable bucket!!! http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp

For a quick article on corn plastics see http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2007/07/11/corn-plastic/

For those of you who might have Corn allergies!! - http://cornfree.ca/index.htm I guess PLA coffee cups are too corny for some.