2008 Woodie Awards
Eco-Mind
Concerning 'Eco-Cups'
Ashley Hall
Issue date: 11/6/06 Section: Columns
I'm a big fan of coffee. It's a warm and comforting way to prepare for the day's long line of academic trials. I often see students marching down the street towards class, holding up their paper cup like a shield against the tide. You'd think everyone was running at them with a spear, the way they clutch the damn thing.
I'm not so fond, however, of the impact resulting from students' coffee consumption patterns. Unless you fill `er up with your eyes closed, you will probably have noticed a recent change in cup design. This is the result of Green Mountain Coffee Roaster (GMCR)s' initiative with International Paper to unveil a new cup made with a bio-plastic liner. Regular paper cups are manufactured with petroleum-derived plastic, but these babies use corn. A renewable resource. Or is it?
First of all, think about this logically. Unless GMCR has some sort of black market access to massive amounts of organic corn, there is an enormous input of petroleum-derived synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that goes into growing conventional corn. The U.S. is currently in the midst of a corn glut, where farmers who need to pay the bills find they cannot get much money for the corn they have been coerced into planting by giants such as Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto.
These companies are responsible for supplying corporations with the raw materials needed to make such healthy fare as genetically modified canola oil, preservatives, food coloring, and high fructose corn syrup. The glut is also partly responsible for why most U.S. livestock is being force-fed corn, a diet their body cannot handle. They become ill and require the antibiotics that are causing such concern as hormone disruptors.
Well, good, you say, at least some excess corn is being offset into cups. Well, no, I say, because we're simply encouraging the increase in supply by increasing demand, and creating legitimacy for an environmentally-corrupt situation by incorporating it into an `eco-cup'.
I'm not so fond, however, of the impact resulting from students' coffee consumption patterns. Unless you fill `er up with your eyes closed, you will probably have noticed a recent change in cup design. This is the result of Green Mountain Coffee Roaster (GMCR)s' initiative with International Paper to unveil a new cup made with a bio-plastic liner. Regular paper cups are manufactured with petroleum-derived plastic, but these babies use corn. A renewable resource. Or is it?
First of all, think about this logically. Unless GMCR has some sort of black market access to massive amounts of organic corn, there is an enormous input of petroleum-derived synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that goes into growing conventional corn. The U.S. is currently in the midst of a corn glut, where farmers who need to pay the bills find they cannot get much money for the corn they have been coerced into planting by giants such as Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto.
These companies are responsible for supplying corporations with the raw materials needed to make such healthy fare as genetically modified canola oil, preservatives, food coloring, and high fructose corn syrup. The glut is also partly responsible for why most U.S. livestock is being force-fed corn, a diet their body cannot handle. They become ill and require the antibiotics that are causing such concern as hormone disruptors.
Well, good, you say, at least some excess corn is being offset into cups. Well, no, I say, because we're simply encouraging the increase in supply by increasing demand, and creating legitimacy for an environmentally-corrupt situation by incorporating it into an `eco-cup'.
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