It is that time of the year again, when millions of
Canadians hold their breath, squeeze all their hopes into the pit of their
stomachs, and roll up the rim to see if they win. The problem is that the
only thing we are actually winning is a crappier planet.
Roll up the Rim to Win has been the bane of my existence
for the past decade. The University of Ottawa, like every other University, has
a disposable cup problem: there are too many of them to put a fine point to it.
Many, if not the majority of disposable coffee cups, are
tossed directly into the garbage on campus. There is a general misconception that coffee
cups are covered with so much wax that they can’t be recycled (I can’t blame anyone, what is that stuff on the inside of the cup that is super shinny and stops
water from leaking out of it?). Otherwise, people understand that you can
recycle them and they do just that... except that they do it while the cup is
still half full of coffee. That means that the coffee soaks the rest of the
paper in the bin and contaminates everything.
So when I say that I cringe at the slowly rolled “r”s of
Rrrroll up the Rrrrim, believe me there is good cause. You see, all the efforts
we put into getting people to use reusable mugs during the year goes completely
out the window during roll up the rim. It is as if there is a collective frenzy
of cup lust during the month of March... and for what? A one in six chance to
win a muffin? This is a serious problem; I even have enviro friends that give up their
reusable mugs for a couple of weeks. It is simply understood that during roll
up the rim, the rules about being green somehow no longer apply.
Well, here are the straight goods people. Those "extra" coffees you are drinking to get more cups in the hopes of winning it big are really bad for the
environment. Let’s look at a couple of contributing factors.
- First, most coffee cups are not being recycled properly, as previously mentioned.
The first place to look for discarded cups; the garbage bin. The second place;
the street. The third place; the river. After that, you can probably find large
chunks of cups in the stomachs of birds.
- Second, cups come from trees. I know that this seems like a
really intuitive thing to mention but it seems like people have totally
forgotten this. All those cups mean that a whole lot of trees aren’t growing in
the forest anymore. I wish that the cups were made from 100% post consumer
paper, but they aren’t.
- Third, those cups are being created from pure unicorn love.
They are a concoction of chemicals and plastic based materials that have the
potential of doing some serious damage in your body. I do know of people that
have said that coffee tastes better when it is in a disposable cup... I mean if
you like the taste of wax and plastic and stuff like that, more power to you.
- And finally, all those cups don’t ascend into disposable cup heaven. No, not at all... they go to a much worse place, the municipal landfill. As mentioned, many cups aren’t recycled and so they are filling up the dumps, and the fact that roll up the rim encourages the idea buying more cups for more chances to win is kinda evil. (Just another random evil thing, Tim Hortons is notorious for not having small coffee sleeves if your beverage is too hot; rather, you get an entirely new cup to put your other cup into.)
Roll up the rim is brilliant in how effective it has been.
If Tim Hortons can convince you to spend a couple of more bucks on coffee at
the cost of a muffin or donut that only costs the company like 20 cents, than
they are certainly coming out on top. Of course, the big loser is the
environment and by extension the people that live in it.
I would love to know
how many more cups are sold during roll up the rim just so I could wrap my head
around the total damage being done... but maybe I actually don’t want to know because I kind of think it would be too depressing. Whatever, just don’t come to me
complaining of a destroyed planet littered with endless fields of coffee
cups... you at least got a muffin out of it.
~ jon - campus sustainability managerphoto credit - jonathan rausseo