Making Fast-Food Chains More Eco-Friendly

Environment   Apr 10, 2017 by Melissa Kriegl

Our Inquiry project is about seeing if we can reduce and divert the amount of waste going into our landfills.

We decided to target coffee cups, which is something that creates a large amount of waste, throughout Canada, since millions of people purchase a cup every day.

So far, we have gotten in contact with an owner of a major coffee branch. We didn't get much information from him, because he did not deal in anything to do with the manufacturing of cups or ordering them, but we got enough. He informed us that he thought the cups were recyclable, but that some recycling plants could not break down the wax coating that encases the cup. He told us that they sold approximately 40 million cups of coffee a day, and if the majority of these cups are not getting recycled, think about the number of cups that stay in the landfill. For a company that makes 4 billion dollars a year, we believe they have enough money to make a change, and we think it would increase their popularity if they became an eco-friendly company.

Solutions:

• Biodegradable cups

We looked up the cost of a biodegradable cup that could be used to hold the coffee instead, and it is close in price to the approximated cost of the cups they currently use we got from the owner. The biodegradable cup sold on greenpaperproducts.com sells for 14 cents, while their cup is 15 cents. We understand that they have a quantity discount, but if they changed manufacturers to a company that makes biodegradable cups, and asked to order a million of them, I'm sure the company could be flexible about the price. We were told on the phone that one of the reasons they are hesitant about the biodegradable cups is the reliability. I believe that these cups could easily be tested and improved to consumer standards.

• Bring your own cup

Apparently, the thought of bringing your own travel mug was already tried, but was not a success. We have come up with a change that could possibly work. I read an article on how we could compare this solution to the cost of plastic bags. A couple years ago, there was a legislation put in place to have a cost on plastic bags in grocery stores, in the hope of people bringing reusable bags. This article I read talked about how people only care if they are getting charged and not if they are getting a discount. So, if businesses charged customers 10 cents instead of discounting them 10 cents at coffee places, we believe people would begin to bring a mug, similar to how most people bring reusable bags instead of plastic bags. Another issue could be that people would change the shop from which they are getting their coffee from, so this charge would have to be put in place to all sellers of coffee.

How does making the cups compostable reduce GHG?

Making the cups compostable means less waste going into the landfills, which then reduces the amount of methane and carbon dioxide being emitting into the atmosphere. 

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