| Tweet |
Can we live without Styrofoam? The better question is: Can we live with it?
Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day. That is a lot of coffee, a lot of caffeine and a whole lot of disposable cups. In fact, millions of us drink and dine daily on meals and beverages delivered via Styrofoam cups, tableware and clamshells. And why not — Styrofoam is sturdy, lightweight, and cheap. But how does convenience compare to Styrofoam’s impact on our health and the environment? Can we live without it?
“Styrofoam” is actually the trade name for a polystyrene foam product used for housing insulation. Those familiar cups, plates and clamshells we see all the time are made of this styrene (and manufactured with petroleum). More than 25 billion styrene cups go into landfills every year — but the real problem is that they stay there, as styrene doesn’t biodegrade. So maybe we should rephrase the question: Can we live with Styrofoam?
Some cities and countries have banned styrene products and made a push to switch to paper. That’s a good thought, but it presents its own problems: Many paper disposables are made with 100 percent bleached virgin paperboard and have an inner plastic liner, which means they can’t be recycled.
The good green news is that sustainable alternatives are more readily available than ever. Commercial suppliers now offer products made from renewable sources such as corn, sugarcane, palm leaves and bamboo. On an individual level, the familiar Solo brand, for instance, offers “ecoforward,” non-oil-based tableware under the brand name Bare.
The best green choice, of course, is sticking with reusable mugs, glassware and tableware. In the past, some have argued that there’s a trade-off of resources even with reusable items, which is true. But it’s been calculated that a mug reaches a resource break-even point at 24 uses. This means one simple reusable mug beats its disposable counterpart in environmental impact in less than a month!
Earth-friendly alternatives to Styrofoam are available — and we can easily live without it. If you can’t find “green to go” options where you shop, ask for them. Every green step matters.
Teresa Wade is the principal of Sustainable Solutions, a local consulting firm that helps businesses understand and implement sustainability programs, and founder of Experience Green, a nonprofit that provides experiential sustainability education. Experience Green offers consumer workshops that kick off Feb. 15. Wade can be reached at experiencegreen.org or by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
