Green Storm in a Coffee Cup

Someone decided to go green at my workplace a few months ago. So, they cut the disposable cups for coffee/tea completely and distributed reusable plastic mugs instead. The underlying thesis is that this would reduce the carbon footprint. I am not in agreement with that thesis to which I will get to later. But the story goes beyond green here and took some funny turns.

The lady who distributed the cups thought I was an employee and gave me the box containing the reusable mug. I cheerfully placed my hands on the box accepting it. While I did, she asked me if I was an employee, to which I said 'No'. She grabbed the cup out of my hands and said 'Sorry! No cups for contractors'.

This incident here led to a discussion in the company. Are contractors not allowed to drink coffee anymore, or should the company have disposables for them thereby effecting the carbon footprint reduction targets. More importantly, diversity is a key issue and complete removal of disposables kept 40% of the company's workforce without coffee. This incident reached my team manager and then the IT Department director. I do not know what happened behind closed doors, but I had a mug on my desk the next morning.

I came to know later that my manager took care of the issue. I thanked her for the goodwill gesture. As always in any society, there will be people who are smart and quick to grab chances to self propel. One Employee used this incident to enhance his year end review. This same guy, in the immediate aftermath of the incident, argued that contractors were not allowed to the same benefits as employees.

Coffee and controversies seem to go hand in hand not only in my life but across the globe. There was an incident recently at European Union, where they had bought about 21 Deluxe Espresso machines for about $7500. Have these financial wizards considered the basics of economics. How many espressos should be delivered from the machine to break even the cost at $7500? Also what makes these executives at EU so special that they needed a Espresso only from an espresso machine that costs $7500 and not from some $75 machine which are not cheap by any means. It was found that the water coming from these machines 'had high levels of nickel and elevated amounts of lead'. This of course led to a huge uproar about the irrational wasteful spending in this economy at the Union head quarters. This was reported on CNBC.

My tryst with Caffeine has come to end now; at least temporarily. I have been observing mild palpitations during or immediately after my afternoon dosage of caffeine(coffee and/or tea). My doctor tells me that caffeine can cause heart palpitations and anxiety. She told me to be off of caffeine for about 2 months and monitor the frequency of the same. If you considering quitting caffeine, here are 10 reasons.

But the real point I want to bring out is - Is it really green having coffee in reusable mugs(porcelain/plastic/steel etc) as against disposable Styrofoam or paper cups? To me, it all comes down to money. But most times, cost is not an easy parameter to compare. The cost on one side of this debate is known - that of the reusable cup and only if you buy it. But the cost involved in using a disposable cup is difficult to know unless you are a coffee vendor. The cost of the disposable cup is passed on the to the coffee consumer and is highly intangible to the consumer.

By bringing greenbacks into the story, I bypassed the point of going green. The real point is not greenback but the carbon footprint or indirectly the energy consumed and also the biodegradability. We know about biodegradability and recycling issues of both the choices. I just want to compare the energy consumed with both here. Most of my views here are mostly from a post on Slate here.

The Ceramic mug takes 70 times more energy to make it as compared with a Styrofoam cup. This is because the ceramic mug is lot heavier than the Styrofoam cup and hence more energy to produce it and ship(transport) it from the manufacturing plant to the retail store. But the equation does not end there. A disposable cup goes to a dumpster or to a recycle bin if your workplace has a recycle bin for used Styrofoam cups(highly unlikely). The life of a reusable cup is much longer. But it also involves a lot more maintenance - cleaning and washing.

The washing liquid has it's own carbon footprint which can be minimal considering how much we use to wash it. It becomes enormous though when you consider how many times we wash a cup in it's lifetime (at least 200 times in a year in my case as I work almost 200 days in a year and drink coffee daily with a reusable mug). A prudent and green conscious consumer's mug can easily have a lifetime of 4 years. That is almost 800 washes.

The water used for cleaning is also a wastage of the precious commodity that easily goes unnoticed. If the water used is hot, which is most likely the case, there is more energy spent to heat the water. An old study reveals that washing with hot water will take as much energy and emissions as is involved in making a Styrofoam cup. So the green monger should clean with cold water only occasionally and that too with phosphate free dish washing liquid. Apparently dish washing detergents containing phosphates 'can cause ecologically harmful algal blooms in waterways' as is stated here. One is also more likely to reheat the caffeine beverage in a reusable container rather than that it a disposable one.

Taking all the energy consumption involved, it is not such a bad idea to use a disposable cup. If you really want to take the reusable path, resist from buying a new one unless you have to absolutely. Get one from home, or use one that is left unused in the work kitchen. Clean with phosphate free dish washing liquid and rinse with cold water. If all this is too much work, feel free to use the disposable without guilt but exercise prudence. What appears to be quite obvious on the outset is actually not the truth; there is more depth to the story with a completely different perspective than that is obvious.