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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
This article appears in March 14 • 1997 and March 14 • 1997 (Cover).