Billions of disposable coffee cups end up in landfills around the world every year rather than being recycled. The reason: the cups are indeed made of paper, but they are coated with a layer of plastic, so it is not economical to recycle them. And what is the situation in Israel?
By Maya Falah, Angle, Science and Environment News Agency
Remember the cup of coffee you bought this morning on the way to work? So, just like you, tens of millions of people around the world today bought a hot drink in a disposable cup "on the go": in England alone, for example, every day about7 million cups of coffee "to take".
The problem is that all these masses of cups - contrary to what you might have thought, because these are cups made of paper - do not go to recycling, but end up in landfills. The reason for this is that in order to hold the hot liquid that fills them, the cups are coated in the manufacturing process with a transparent plastic liquid, which makes the recycling of the cup complicated to the point of impossible in most paper recycling plants.
In fact, recycling hot drink cups in their existing format is so complex that there are only three paper recycling plants in the entire United States today (out of about 450 in total) that are able to do it; In Israel, you guessed it, there is not a single one like that. That is to say - every single-use paper cup in which we drink hot drinks eventually finds its way to the landfills, joins the mountains of compacted and non-biodegradable garbage and thus pollutes the environment. To understand the scope of the problem, it is enough to take a look In the recently published instructive figure Regarding the American coffee giant Starbucks - 4 billion (!) disposable coffee cups of the chain find their way to landfills every year and are not recycled.
This is a particularly sad figure in light of the fact that in 2008, Starbucks solemnly announced that it intended to make efforts reduce the glass waste it produces: With most of the ceremony, she declared that she would develop a cup made of 100 percent recycled materials, and in addition she would take steps that would result in a quarter of her customers using reusable cups - and all this by 2015.
However, in 2013, after various efforts by the chain that included many discussions and consultations with experts from leading research and development institutions, the chain announced that it was abandoning the development efforts of the designated cup, and even reducing the target of customers who use reusable cups to only 5 percent. Today, by the way, more than two years after the target date, only 1.8 percent of its customers do so - even though the reusable cups are sold at a relatively cheap price in all branches, and the chain even offers a discount on the coffee cup when you arrive at the branch with a reusable cup to fill.
according to Report Recently publicized by the organization Stand.earth, Starbucks then put the responsibility on the recycling corporations, claiming that they should make their plants and infrastructure suitable for recycling the paper cups; But the meaning of such a step is that the payment for establishing the factories (or upgrading the existing ones) will fall on the taxpayers - while the giant Starbucks, which is responsible for producing billions of such cups a year, has both the means and the responsibility to develop cups that will be adapted to the existing recycling processes. Since the chain already has 26 branches around the world, and by 2021 it plans to open another 12 branches, there is no doubt that Starbucks should have the responsibility to do something about it, especially considering that technologies already exist to produce coating that is more easily recycled than the current plastic coating.
"There is no one to take care of it in Israel"
Although Starbucks does not currently operate in Israel (attempts to introduce the chain to Israel in the early XNUMXs were unsuccessful, and individual branches that opened in Israel were closed after a long time), but Israelis also drink quite a bit of coffee - it is estimated that the average Israeli Drink about 3-4 cups of coffee a day, and the coffee sales market in coffee shops in Israel is estimated atAbout 3 billion shekels Per year.
The "Aroma Espresso-Bar" chain is the largest chain of coffee shops in Israel, it has been operating here since 1994 and has a national distribution of more than 140 branches today (not including the city of Tel Aviv, where the separate "Aroma Tel Aviv" chain operates). And in Aroma, as expected, the situation is the same: the disposable cups you buy there are not suitable for recycling.
"All the paper cups for hot drinks that we know are produced in this way, with a transparent plastic coating, so that they are neither entirely plastic nor entirely paper, and it is very difficult to separate the materials. It's such a complicated and expensive process that financially it doesn't pay off," explains Noam Gadalihu, Aroma's director of social responsibility. "In fact, we tried to find solutions for this: I have been in this position for a decade at Aroma, and at the beginning I tested the possibility of a coating for cups that is biodegradable, therefore making the cup more biodegradable. When I checked it a few years ago, the prices were astronomical - this is 4-5 times the price of a normal glass; Over the years, the gap has narrowed a bit, but in terms of quantities - it's about millions of cups a year - it's still a very significant damage to profitability. What's more, in Israel, even a paper cup with a coating from a biological source will eventually end up in a normal landfill - because there is no one to take care of it here, so it turns out that this whole investment is not only expensive, but also environmentally unprofitable.
"Reusable cups, on the other hand, we have had for a long time - both for hot and cold drinks," says Gadalihu. "If a customer comes with a glass like this, we fill it and also give a shekel discount. This is of course good from an environmental point of view, but it also pays off for us financially - because it also saves us the lid and the glass and makes it come back to us so that we fill it. We have had both cups and a thermos for many years, and they are sold in all branches.
"Beyond cups, we have all kinds of solutions for the waste we produce - we are constantly trying new things," he says. "For example, all the organic waste from our production plants in Beit Shemesh does not go to landfill, but is used to produce compost and feed animals - all in the Beit Shemesh area, so it also stays in the environment and is not transported, thus saving further damage to the environment."
Establishing a recycling plant is not economical
"Hot drink cups that you buy outside, in Aroma, for example, are considered packaging," says Tamar Raviv, head of recycling in the solid waste division of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. "Currently we do not have the ability to recycle these cups, which are made of different materials and some are coated with plastic. We don't have suitable factories for this today.
"You have to understand that the US has more than 300 million inhabitants compared to about 8.5 million here, and even though we consume roughly the same as the Americans, we are still a very small market. And since it's a small market, at the moment I don't see any prospect of restoring a small factory that treats cups on a spot basis. Today especially the recycling market is difficult, and since the raw materials (plastic, for example) are relatively cheap, there is damage to the recycling market all over the world. The Ministry of Environmental Protection does not establish recycling plants but only supports the prevention of landfill, therefore in order to restore a recycling plant - it must be economical. If we don't find the entrepreneur who thinks it's an economic thing to do, it won't happen.
"From our point of view, the most correct thing in terms of handling disposable utensils is a reduction at the source," she says. "In Israel, a relatively large amount of disposables are consumed, and we think that the right way to deal with this is to do awareness activities and campaigns that will encourage the public in advance to buy less: explaining to them the disadvantages of this, the effects on the environment - these are things that can prevent a purchase in the first place. It won't be easy; Today the European Union talks a lot about source reduction, and we know that it is a process there as well, and for us it is something that will take many, many years.'
A million trees every year
And meanwhile in England: according to Survey conducted in the country, today 16 percent of people use reusable cups for drinking their coffee. In addition, 88 percent said they would throw their disposable cups in the recycling bin if one was available.
So here is happy news for them: Olia company (Veolia), a recycling giant that operates around the world, announced last month thatIt will start with a pilot across the UK, in which it will offer companies and businesses to place recycling containers for disposable hot drink cups which it will collect and recycle. These are dedicated bins, which are designed to comfortably empty the remaining liquid from the cup and separate the lid from it, in order to facilitate the recycling process. From there they will go to special recycling plants, which are able to separate the paper from the transparent coating and recycle it. The recycled material, according to Olia, will then be used to produce insulating material for houses, egg cartons, cup holders and more.
Of course, the initiative of the Olea company is welcome, and the spread of such initiatives in the world will help to greatly reduce the amount of landfilled garbage, along with the pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that this garbage emits. But it is important to remember that even recyclable cups are not a perfect solution: over a million trees are cut down every year just to produce the four billion Starbucks cups. And the recycling processes themselves have a price: a lot of energy use, as well as the production of wastewater that may contain toxic chemicals, for example. In the end, although it is less convenient for all of us and requires adaptation, the best solution is to remember to take a multi-purpose cup with you in a bag, and enjoy your coffee in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
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my father
In principle I agree with you.
Regarding plastic bags: there are simply no bags in Australia - please bring your own baskets. In California a bag costs 10 cents, and it works great.
The solution is proper education
Education for saving resources, for recycling, for minimalism.
Unfortunately, education today is the opposite of that.
On the one hand, they wail about environmental pollution and global warming, and on the other hand, they educate for a life of luxury and indulgence, for unnecessary waste, for excess consumption, and for the use of disposable products, which have a short shelf life, and cannot be repaired or recycled.
What is really important in life? What should you really invest the best resources in?
Maybe in the cycle of cups of coffee? Maybe in ozone? And maybe even in the polar bears that are going extinct, or to save the rain forests?
My point is that we need to fix ourselves. No, not just because that's what they say.
But because there is a hidden system. The same area we call the unconscious, uncertainty. In short, the one from which scientists are rejected due to the lack of tools to perceive it. He is the one who will become conscious, the one who can be validated and verified.
What parameter is missing here? that in addition to absolute laws that we have discovered there is another law, more hidden, we do not see it directly. This law is called the bail law. This law binds man through his actions, thoughts and desires to a system from which results dangle into this world.
The time will come (someday...) when we will understand that there is a world of results (our world) and there is a place from where it was signed. This is the source of what is happening in our world. It can be called "the world of roots".
. As in everything (and there is no philosophy here at all) only if we know the laws of nature and how they dangle from those roots, then we can control and influence our destiny.
And in the meantime - nature laughs at us, we observe the results and try to associate them with the causes.
If we only know how to perfect our sense, upgrade our perception, calibrate our awareness, then not only will we be able to call those roots, but also activate them.
Is nature a night of random parameters or is the end of an act premeditated?
Only when the method for that perfection and upgrading of man is discovered, only when it will be considered a real paradigm. So we will start to recognize new laws.
The same law that although we humans experience it in multiple changes and forms, it is one.
And for all those in favor of the taxation system - in my opinion, taxation is just another method of putting a hand in the public's pocket without real delusion.
The taxation on the nylons did not bring about a significant change.
The effective thing is a deposit that is returned as it is on the small bottles.
This method helps the environment, and also poor people, because many unemployed people collect and return these bottles.
The taxation on the plastic bags is just a nuisance that does not help anything and it is not clear where this money goes.
I noticed that milk cartons are also the same story, the carton is non-recyclable.
And this includes Harduf's organic milk - (which today belongs to the Tnuva company.)
A facility for washing and disinfecting a reusable cup at the branch, will increase their use. (Another option is to bring a dirty cup and get a washed one.)
In the caption to the first picture - 4 billion per year is just in Starbucks!
I would prefer a bag in the supermarket to cost more, but still 10 cents makes an impact because in normal shopping you need more than one bag to pack all the groceries. This is exactly the problem with coffee cups - you don't buy more than one at a time and the waste volume of a paper cup and lid exceeds that of several bags. But awareness is just as important, when with every purchase in the supermarket the bag buyer is reminded that he is actually harming the environment.
Everyone who comes to the beaches or the open spaces sees the result of behavior
A criminal thug of the trash spreaders and against criminals there are laws that must be respected,
When garbage ends up in containers and landfills, it's the least evil except that
The coffee cups are added to disposable dishes in astronomical quantities
that the inhabitants of the country sprinkle on the beaches and in every corner and under every tree,
Reusable cups are a partial solution
Since a higher level solution is aggressive education and enforcement,
Educating the public not to litter
and strict enforcement of existing laws to prevent pollution,
When the inhabitants of the country argue among themselves "whose land is it?"
and act as if "their country" is a garbage can
The solution is a firm and immediate punishment for any miscreant...
repeats me "Green taxation" at the appropriate level and the consumer's awareness of the price at the time of purchase (just like in the case of plastic bags) can reduce the volume of waste, but it must be understood that in any case there are products that are difficult to impossible to recycle and therefore it is better to burn them in suitable furnaces to generate energy instead of striving and investing in achieving the inevitable Possible while the garbage piles are growing.
But here, it turns out that Aroma gives a discount of one shekel for filling coffee in a reusable cup (probably one that it sold earlier). This is much more than some deposit fee that can be imposed on consumers (for plastic bags they managed to give a fine of only 10 cents). How many people even know about this? (I did not know). How many people really care and do they understand the problems involved in using these cups? And how many people are willing to walk around the streets of the city or the mall with a reusable cup - and then walk around after using it when it is not washed? (And then remember to wash it before the next outing?) I think it hurts their self-image. In other words, the intersection of the group of "recyclers" and the group of "coffee drinkers to go from aroma" is close to an empty group.
Taxation of 10 AZ doesn't bother anyone, if it was 1 or 2 NIS that's another story, and if they made a deposit of 30 AZ, the streets would also be cleaned
Only "green taxation" just like with the plastic bags will reduce the mountains of dirt. The consumer will pay for each glass separately and then can do the calculation. You just have to worry about a significant price for each glass that will make him change his habits.