The Conflict of Containers: Which one is more Eco-friendly?

As I begrudgingly researched the seemingly obvious question of whether styrofoam or ceramic cups left a larger carbon footprint, I formulated what I knew to be the absolute environmental truth: styrofoam doesn't degrade...styrofoam bad....styrofoam is eco-enemy. This fact and more was found as I continued to delve into the controversy of cup-usage. Here are the facts I expected. Around 25,000,000,000 cups are disposed by Americans each year. These cups will outlast your children, and your children's children and still leave hints of a noble legacy of drinking...something...for breakfast that one tuesday morning 500 years ago. So styrofoam is the dastardly villain society claims it is! Not soo fast-that's only one side of the story.

The other side, is a bit less obvious and a little unexpected. Despite these obvious set-backs of styrofoam, it is not AS bad as you think. These eco-enemy bad boys actually have a lower environmental impact(determined by measuring resource extraction and GHG emissions) than ceramic mugs. In fact, one would have to use there ceramic mug 500 times to break even with the energy it takes to make a single styrofoam cup. Another shocking point- it takes more energy to simply wash your ceramic cup then it does to make a styrofoam cup!

Land waster versus energy waster. It's a tough fight but ceramic cups still remain the victor of our ecological society. After all, they ARE reusable and that little issue of its energy gobbling can be rectified... if every person suddenly chose to obssesively use just one ceramic mug for all their thirst-quenching needs...and for good measure-use it more than once between washings!

Sources:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/11/ecotip_coffee_c.php

http://www.wisebread.com/the-coffee-cup-revolution-lets-take-a-stand

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/energy/poweringdown/2009/01/coffee-cup-contest.html