James5

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or to email alerts. Thanks for visiting!

It’s a classic conundrum, do you go for the disposable cup when buying your Fairtrade latte, or invest the effort into lugging in your own ceramic or plastic mug? This study would seem to complicate things by demonstrating that in terms of energy use it doesn’t make much difference. You’d have to use a ceramic cup thousands of times before it pays off it’s energy debt incurred during construction and shipping (and that assumes a really efficient dishwasher). However, the conclusion reached at the end is a good example of how a seemingly good and straightforward argument is wrong:

The lesson of this life-cycle energy analysis is that the choice between reusable and disposable cups doesn’t matter much in its overall environmental impact. One should use one’s best judgment.

(emphasis added)

As ess commented, though the energy difference is not all that great, the disposable cups are still an environmental pain for other reasons - landfill being the big one, but also a lot of them are made from polystyrene (ie. oil). So the overall environmental impact is quite different based on your choice. Just make sure your ceramic cup isn’t being constantly lost or broken during transit.

Popularity: 3% [?]