What's Up With the Cup?

Who would have thought the relative convenience of a cup of coffee to go could have turned into such a political struggle? Environmentalists, or the "earth-friendly" as a Starbucks employee called her company's position, would prefer you to drink from paper cups because paper is recyclable and saves landfill space. Yet Styrofoam cups, the kind used by coffeehouse owners who call themselves "realists," cost three to four times less than their paper brethren. Change the cups, and establishments will be forced to raise the price of your cappucino, they say. Theoretically, you might think customers would be willing to pay more for higher quality beans than a friendlier cup to hold them in. But not here in Austin. According to several local coffeehouses, customers have increasingly begun calling for a switchover to paper, even though paper cups are estimated to keep coffee warm only half as long as Styrofoam. And even without an organized movement, the anti-foam party seems to be gaining ground as of late, with Ruta Maya recently admitting that their new plan to phase out foam is rooted in the environmental concerns of their customers.

But before you chalk one up for the earth, consider this: Paper is perhaps not as landfill-friendly as advertised. Few folks, if anybody, recycle their paper coffee cups. Why? Because not only is it a hassle to select and sort them, but most cups aren't pure paper. According to Scott Dillon, a supply and equipment buyer for SYSCO, one of the nation's largest restaurant food and supply wholesalers, real (read: recyclable) paper generally doesn't hold water. And Dillon says that while wax-coated paper cups have traditionally been a solution, virtually every major paper cup manufacturer in the country has moved to water-retaining "poly"-coated cups. "They're very unfriendly [environmentally] ," says Dillon, of the paper cups local restaurateurs now seem to be flocking to. "They aren't recyclable, because their paper and plastic elements don't separate. So foam and paper cups are headed to the same destination, the landfill. That's the irony."

And according to local supply houses, this irony doesn't come cheap. Most suppliers seem to be reporting the cost of paper cups at generally somewhere between 5-8cents apiece, and Styrofoam in a range from 1.5-3cents per cup. But then most paper-using coffeehouses say they need two paper cups to function in the capacity of one foam, in order to keep the hot coffee at desirable drinking temperature without burning hands in the process. Although a local Starbucks employee insists that double cups are generally necessary for only drip coffee and Americanas, which get up to 195deg., several local coffeehouses admit that the civil action resulting from the recent McDonald's-burnt-lap case has them erring on the side of caution and doubling up cups on all coffee products. And while Java Jackets, or cardboard sleeves, have become a viable and trendy solution to the two-cup dilemma, they also add another 4 cents to the house's cost per cup. SYSCO's Dillon says at least one manufacturer is promising a cup with a built-in jacket by late summer, but has yet to announce what price it will charge per cup.

Although the debate seems to be primarily about politics and price, another element is simply a matter of taste. "A lot of our regulars who drink espresso want paper," Captain Quakenbush's manager Kelly Ables says of the choice her cafe offers customers. "They just don't like what the Styrofoam does to the taste of the espresso... it seems to have nothing to do with the recycling issue." In fact, even the distributors themselves won't argue that Styrofoam does indeed slightly change the taste of coffee and espresso drinks. And in fact most local joints say that it's the thinner, brown-tinted Styrofoam cups -- like the ones used at Spider House and Austin Java Co. -- that for some reason appear to do the most to change the taste of the coffee. Those brown cups are slightly cheaper, and while perhaps their earth-tone tint suggests a more earth-conscious foam, Dillon says the cup isn't any more environmentally friendly. "Foam is foam," Dillon says. "But it's true that it can alter tastes. That's why you don't ever serve beer in foam cups."

So, the only truly environmental solution for the coffee industry may just be the drinking of coffee at the coffeehouse itself. While Austin Java Co., Quakenbush's and several of the bagel chains say sales are picking up on the refillable and reusable "travel mugs," those same stores report that most commuting coffee drinkers still view them as an inconvenience -- in that they have to be washed at home, placed back into the car, and refilled only at a given location. Until that attitude changes, it looks like the current coffee cup debate will continue moving forwards. "Foam still sells better, by far," Dillon says of the current climate. "But paper has really been picking up...."

And perhaps the issue of plastic lids, with a myriad of pull tabs, push tabs, and raised hole options, is another story altogether....

-- Andy Langer