Coffee Cups: How your disposable cup is affecting the planet

10/15/21 • 39 min

Coffee is an international obsession. But what impact do the billions of disposable coffee cups used each year have on the environment? How are these cups made and what happens to them once you have finished your drink?
In this episode we look at the environmental impact of single-use versus reusable coffee cups. Our guest is Saxon Wright, Co-Founder and Chairman of Huskee, a reusable coffee cup company looking to build a circular economy around their products. He talks us through how disposable and reusable coffee cups are made and discarded, and how simple changes in our behaviour can make a huge impact in the fight against waste and climate change.
Learn more about Huskee: https://huskee.co/
References: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/26/why-britains-25-billion-paper-coffee-cups-are-an-eco-disaster, https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/reuse-rethinking-packaging

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Previous Episode

Plastic Food Packaging: Trade-offs and choices in your local supermarket

Think back to your latest supermarket visit: what sort of fruit, vegetables or meat did you buy - and how much of it was wrapped in plastic? With 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging produced each year, the answer for most people will be 'an awful lot.' So why is there so much plastic packaging, how is it made and disposed, what environmental impact does it have, and what can we as consumers do about it?
We'll answer all these questions and more in this episode with our amazing guest Dr Rachel Rothman, Co-Director of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield. Together, we will break down this complex issue, discuss the trade-offs of plastic packaging and food waste, and figure out the steps that we can take while shopping to reduce plastic pollution and combat climate change!
Learn more about the Grantham Centre's work on plastics: https://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/research-projects/redefine-single-use-plastic/, https://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/research-projects/many-happy-returns-plastic/.
References: https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/the-new-plastics-economy-rethinking-the-future-of-plastics

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Next Episode

Face Masks: Being green while staying safe

Face masks have become ubiquitous over the last year and a half. And so have abandoned face masks littering our sidewalks, parks and oceans. With an estimated 129 billion face masks used each month, how can we protect the health of ourselves and others while also being eco-friendly?
Find out in this episode with Charnett Chau, a research fellow at University College London's Plastic Waste Innovation Hub. Charnett talks us through the environmental impacts of single-use versus reusable masks, and how a simple choice between the two can have an enormous effect on greenhouse gas emissions and waste production.
Read more about UCL's studies on face masks here: https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/000031.v3, https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/000031.v1, and about the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub here: https://www.plasticwastehub.org.uk/.
Other references: https://news.mit.edu/2021/covid-masks-environment-0720, https://sustainability.yale.edu/blog/masks-footprints-down-how-keep-your-masks-eco-friendly, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210310122431.htm, https://www.adimay.com/2020/08/face-masks-social-and-environmental-impacts/

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