Toronto considering ban on paper coffee cups

I think this is a great idea - I hope we do it Vancouver too.

I bought a 'Biter travel mug' - expensive - and I bring it to the drive thru at Tim Horton's (a variety of them). They fill a paper cup with my coffee, dump it into my reusable mug and THROW OUT the paper cup. AGH!! I think they site Health and Safety as the reason. Ha! Anyway, I do enjoy a good cup. But would appreciate getting to utilize my expensive mug from Biter.com (online environ educational site). I did buy it to ease my guilt about buying coffee and wasting the paper cups.

dueck6 has contributed a photo to this story.

As long as I don't find out in 10 years that my coffee mug has awful chemicals in it and I should have been drinking out of paper all along.

I blogged this here!

tokenblogger.com has contributed a photo to this story.

Thanks for using my photograph! It's good to see this issue getting some publicity.

It seems Canada wants to dispute Germans World Championship in waste separation and cleanliness... . Anyhow it should be a nice test if this works.

The paper cup is a strong symbol of being part of the performance society as it shows that the user has got no time to hang around in a café. And it's a hot candidate for replacing the outlawed cigarette: it's made of paper, gets warm and you can suck on it. Hard for many to live without all this.

Producing cups made of corn will only rice food prices. So better designing a comfortable and appealing service around commuter mugs... this could work! Using instead of owning...

msig has contributed a photo to this story.

Well if we don't use paper cups then what would we use? I think it's a good idea so long as - there aren't other wastes and inefficiencies that can arise from the ban.

I agreed, then disagreed, then sort of agreed... it's a tough one! Plastic is a HUGE problem; do we really want to encourage people to buy more plastic items? Paper is biodegradeable on it's own and the factories making the cups are regulated better than those overseas that are making the plastic mugs. If they are made from 100% post consumer paper, would that be better?

There is a bit of a safety risk with ceramic, and the metal ones are cost prohibitive at the moment... My biggest concern is that I LOVE (to the point of building a collection) those travel mugs... so many styles and designs... now I've gone and spent money on at least 10 travel mugs, and all that plastic will eventually end up in the recycling bin.

I admit to not having a clue how much the corn and sugarcane options would be to manufacture and use. I'm just not sure that paper cups, made domestically from recycled material and in themselves biodegradable, are not a better solution.   ???

I know I already said this - idealbite.com - they have a really good mug.  No weird taste, metal on the inside and the outside too, minimal plastic for trim etc.  It keeps my coffee nice and warm.  If only Tim Horton's would stop pouring my coffee into a paper cup first - than into my reusable one, only tossing the paper one in the GARBAGE!!!  One mug each, take it home, wash it, use it again and again.  Or save lots of money - make your own coffee that's grown  organically, in the shade, and fairly traded in the comfort of your own home... so many options, so little time...

The use of one-time-use stuff like paper cups, in the long run, harm the Earth. I hope there could be technology or materials reducing waste and reuse of resources on the Earth.

Martin Chiu has contributed a photo to this story.

Coffee from home! Agreed!

I really like the idea of compostable coffe cups, as mentioned above, but then collection becomes an issue, since Toronto only collects compost from homes, and people will definitely not carry empty cane-based cups home on the subway. Still, they'll degrade more quickly than their paper cousins.

I have trouble picturing the suits down on Bay Street commuting with enviro-mugs, to be honest- the attraction of paper cups is that you don't have to deal with them.

It's too bad that image and convenience rule over common sence, eh?  I guess it would have to be more painful to buy and use paper etc, than to use a travel mug/biodegradable mug in order to get many people to switch.