Monthly Archives: February 2020

Potential @ PSU

A vision into a reusable coffee container program

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There is no doubt that college students and adults love coffee, especially from specialty coffee places such as Starbucks or Dunkin’. However, these places only offer single-use to-go cups, regardless of whether you are enjoying your beverage there or to go. Several more local or small coffee shops have mugs that they serve for those enjoying their beverages in the store, however, they still offer single-use options when people are bringing their purchases to go.

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Starbucks cups in the trash. Source

According to a CNN Business report by Danielle Wiener-Bronner, “Starbucks used 3.85 billion paper cups for hot beverages in 2017 alone.” This remarkable number does not even include the plastic cups that Starbucks uses to serve their cold beverages. With this issue and the fact that the Starbucks cups are generally non-recyclable, there is a significant environmental issue with how coffee is served.

Even on campus, coffee places like Edge in Pollock and East, along with the subsets of Starbucks in South and West serve their coffee in to-go cups. These cups often end up in trash cans, or even worse, in the incorrect recycling bin or compost, which acts as a pollutant.

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A student with a reusable bottle. Source

As college students, most people have their own to-go coffee mugs, whether it be a Thermos or other insulating flask. Many clubs and organizations even give these out for free in the HUB or during the involvement fair. I see the potential in developing a program that encourages the use of these reusable flasks, even when students are purchasing their coffee from a coffee shop. Students should be able to bring their coffee container, give it to the worker after ordering, and receive their order in their flask. Functioning similarly to the Target plastic bag program, where students receive 5 cents per bag that they do not use.

As I ask my friends about this type of program, they claim that it already exists at the coffee shops on campus, as they have seen others use it. However, we all agreed that they need to be better advertised throughout campus and promoted more often. These types of programs can also benefit when expanded to shops downtown, where students frequently go. These efforts are not only sustainable, but also economically sound as shops will hopefully spend less on single-use cups. Similar to the objectives of green to go, hopefully, one day, a reusable coffee program can successfully be integrated into Penn State and the State College area.

Issues with single use

A look into single use restaurants

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It is generally well known that fast-food restaurants only serve with single-use packaging.  The nuggets that you get at McDonald’s and the chicken sandwich that you get a Chick-fil-a all to come in their own unique packaging. Some of it is more environmentally friendly than others, as the paper box that contains the nuggets is easily biodegradable, but the foil-lined bag of the chicken sandwich isn’t. It is difficult to select one restaurant over the other based purely on their packaging, especially when most people are looking for convenience in fast food.

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Paper nugget box. Source
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Foil lined sandwich bag. Source

When I think of sit down restaurants, however, I expect the meals to be served on reusable plates. For a long time, I could not think of any places that are sit down without having actual metal silverware, reusable cups, and ceramic bowls and plates. However, my eyes were opened this past winter break as I went to The Boiling Crab in Miami Florida. Despite this being a sit-down restaurant, I was surprised to find that everything was single-use. From the plastic table cover to the lack of silverware altogether, customers were expected to eat all the seafood with their hands. Additional sides were served in paper bowls with plastic silverware and even the seafood was brought out in plastic grocery style bags.

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The Boiling Crab serving style. Source

This was quite the eating experience for me, but after the meal, I saw the immense pile of waste that my family and I produced. Although the food scraps and paper cups were biodegradable, the table was cleared all in one go to the trash can. Although the restaurant benefits from not needing to hire dishwashers, they must consistently spend on their single-use items and produce immense amounts of garbage. However, the restaurant is not completely deserving of hate, as they are trying to create the Lousiana dining style experience for its customers. Nevertheless, their lack of a website page for their sustainability and sourcing of seafood brings their care for the environment into question.

I truly feel that people should experience this style of eating at least once in their life because I really enjoyed this meal. People need to realize and understand that this style of eating, though, is not sustainable. The restaurant can hold onto the culture of eating that they are trying to create while still remaining more sustainable through composting and increased use of paper products, rather than plastic.