With Christmas a week away and cold winter mornings in full swing, there is no better way to start your day with a nice hot drink. There’s no doubt about it, we are a nation of coffee and tea lovers. With Starbucks, Café Nero and Costa around the corner of almost every UK high street, disposable coffee cups are piling up in astronomical volume. Did you know in the UK alone we use 7 million disposable coffee cups, daily? – That’s 2.5 billion every year! To put this into perspective, that’s 500 billion plastic cups worldwide every year.
The Aspire Training Team is proud to be supporting the eco-sustainable movement and actively seeking ways to reduce our impact on the planet. This year we’ve introduced reusable tumblers as our 2019 Aspire Christmas gift, perfect for drinking a warm hot chocolate, coffee, or cup of tea whilst you’re on the move.
These Americano® Cortado 300 ml cups are made from SAN plastic, a BPA free product which is 10x more durable than the average PC plastic cups you can buy.
The durability and resistance found in the Americano® Cortado 300 ml tumbler is exactly what you would need for a long lasting travel mug that is incredibly hardwearing. They are dishwasher friendly and made in the UK, which minimises the carbon footprint during transportation.
The one use takeaway cups are cardboard, so they’re recyclable, right?
Wrong! The cups are lined with a mixture of paper and plastic to retain heat and make them leak-proof, which causes difficulties with recycling.
Did you know over 99.75% of one use cups are not recycled? Even if you put your coffee cup in your household recycling bin, it will generally end up in landfill. Not only will the coffee cup end up in landfill, but so will the remainder of your recycling, which has now been contaminated with a non-recyclable product! These offenders are choking our oceans, lakes, rivers, piling up on land, and overflowing waste bins. Not only is it unsightly, but it’s harmful to the plants and wildlife that inhabit our planet.
So, What about Bamboo?
Don’t be bamboozled… Bamboo cups are considered to be eco-friendly as bamboo is one of the world’s fastest growing resources, which is true, but did you know that these cups are not recyclable and won’t biodegrade for years? – meaning they will end up in landfill or incinerated.
A recent study by a respected German consumer group, Stiftung Warrentest discovered that the seemingly ‘eco’ cups were not all that eco. Tests found the glue used to manufacture ‘eco-friendly’ bamboo mugs is made from formaldehyde and melamine – which leach into hot liquids left in the cups. Melamine resin, made of melamine and formaldehyde, is used to bind the fibers together into a mug shape and provide a thick plastic surface. Melamine is suspected to cause diseases in the bladder and kidneys while formaldehyde can irritate the skin, respiratory system or eyes, as well as cause cancer in the nose and throat area when inhaled.
So, the real question is what can we do to help? If like most people you start your day off at home with a cup of tea or coffee (or several), the chances are you’re probably sipping from your favourite mug. But what about when you go out? Ditch the disposable, ditch the paper/carton and take your own reusable cup. It’s really as easy as that!
So, the next time you want to go to your favourite coffee shop, take your reusable cup and ask them to fill it up instead of a disposable cup. You might even get a discount! Saving money and saving the environment sounds good enough for us.
