Comments on: The cup or mug equation

By: Johnson

Johnson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:17:48 +0000

yeah, Nina is onto something. Washing that cup by hand may tip the equation even more heavier on the ceramic cup side. (0.02 MJ/cup-wash by hand vs. 0.19 MJ/foam cup) And if someone decide to reuse the foam cup for a day worth of coffee intake (let say 3) then it may tip the other way 0.06 MJ/cup-machine wash vs 0.063 MJ/foam cup. But this is all playing with numbers. What about water use to wash the cups and the towel to dry them? What about landfill space occupation of 1 ceramic cup vs. a few hundred foam cup? Nothing is simple anymore.

the embodied energy of water use + emboided energy of ceramic cup vs. the embodied energy of foam cup (one time use with no washing)

OR
{(the embodied energy of water use x number of use) + (emboided energy of ceramic cup/ number of use)} vs. (the embodied energy of foam cup / number of use) + {the embodied energy of water use x (number of use -1)}

By: nina

nina — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:45:29 +0000

I’m not sure if I’ve overlooked or not gotten something here, but I only saw discussion on dishwasher. What if the cups are just washed by hand, with a bit of hot water, with the the tap turned off in btween, and rinsed with a bit of water again?

By: ess

ess — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:42:32 +0000

One thing I don’t see – the cup-to-cup comparison is unrealistic. Although I suppose some ceramic cups are broken in shipping, I don’t think the number is significant.

Meanwhile, what’s the loss per sleeve on Styrofoam cups? In my office, I’d say it’s better than five per 25-cup sleeve. They are actually pretty fragile. Additionally, although I have seen many people keep topping off a cup of coffee in a ceramic cup, I don’t recall ever seeing someone reuse a Styrofoam cup for coffee.

The landfill issue, indeed, a factor, and let’s not forgot that Styrofoam is a child of oil, as in “no blood for.”

By: nothalo

nothalo — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:10:49 +0000

When people use ceramic cups for environmental reasons, they are typically trying to avoid the landfill burden of Styrofoam cups.

Your point about energy, which a nifty bit of trivia, does not really factor into the equation for most people.

By: Kevin Dunne

Kevin Dunne — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:19:46 +0000

Fill your mouth with coffee beans, chew them up good, pour milk and sugar into your mouth, pour boiling water into your mouth… now you have coffee with no need for a cup. How do you prevent your mouth getting burned by the water? Way ahead of you. Study the Chilli Contest episode of the Simpsons.

Ralph: Hey mister, you don’t want to get wax all in your mouth do you?
Homer: Maybe I do. Maybe I do.