Wine Bottle Labels

It’s unquestionably a good thing that everyone is talking about saving the planet nowadays. Although we’ll surely some day wonder why we thought what we did back in 2009 and 2010 was enough, it’s really just good that the idea of going green isn’t just secluded to a tiny minority. As thoughts regarding the environment have shifted, many businesses are rethinking a lot of their old practices and buying habits. Companies that don’t care about anything but saving money are even looking at green products, even if they don’t know it, as going green is now way cheaper than before. Let’s examine one of the smaller things that most companies are still overlooking: disposable coffee cups.

Why Do Fast Food Restaurants Still Use Disposable Coffee Cups?

Restaurants and offices are really the only business types that still use disposable coffee cups, for the most part. There’s not many options for fast food restaurants. They pretty much have to provide their customers with a product that they expect to be thrown away since they certainly can’t expect them to bring back dishes. This is the way fast food will work, and there will always be a need for disposable coffee cups, until someone comes up with something truly innovative.

Sit-Down Restaurants Could Go Greener

In those restaurants where people use dishes, though, the reason disposable coffee cups are used is generally due to money. They may not be saving as much money as they think they are, though. Although the up-front price is less, they’re still repeatedly paying for disposable coffee cups when they could be re-using, saving a ton of waste. Of course, this would involve paying employees to clean the coffee cups. Is it worth the up front cost? The answer to that depends on many factors, including your dishwasher’s pay rate, if your restaurant uses a machine and if it can handle the additional load, and the cost of the disposable cups over time. However, no one can argue that getting rid of disposable coffee cups would cut waste and help the environment.

Why Do Offices Still Use Disposable Coffee Cups?

Many offices offer free coffee as a courtesy to their customers. The issue here isn’t unlike the issues with fast food restaurants. Can clients truly be expected to provide cups of their own? With a lobby, though, there is a very simple solution, though some people won’t like it. This coffee is free, after all, so there really is no financial reason to provide coffee anyway, which means clients should be happy to bring their own cups. More than likely, though, people would get offended, even if you did advise them that you were removing disposable cups to cut down on waste.

Why Do Those Offices That Don’t Have Visitors Still Use Disposable Coffee Cups?

Some offices that don’t expect to see any visitors also still use disposable coffee cups. This practice is both expensive and wasteful. Modern offices should expect their employees to provide their own cups or, if they are feeling especially generous, they can always provide their employees with coffee cups that have a company logo. In the long run, they would probably still save money over using disposable coffee cups.

Deidre likes to write articles about coffee cups and ceramic coffee cups.