A new coffee culture is forming in and around San Francisco, California. A growing number of coffeehouses there are stopping using paper cups. Instead, they are using glass cups or creating "bring your own" cup rules. The movement started among neighborhood cafes in an effort to cut down waste. Now it is receiving support from large businesses in the city—and around the country.
The Blue Bottle coffeehouse company, which uses about 15,000 to-go cups each month at its 70 shops across the U.S., is starting small with plans to stop using paper cups at two of its stores in 2020. The move is part of a promise to produce "zero waste" by the end of next year. Customers will have to bring their own cups or pay $3 to $5 for a reusable cup. They can keep the cup or return it to get their money back. The company's manager Bryan Meehan said, "We expect to lose some business. We know some of our guests won't like it—and we're prepared for that."
Kedar Korde, a small cafe owner, has stopped using paper and plastic cups since September. He decided to make the change after his 9-year-old daughter's school cleaned up waste at Lake Merritt, near his cafe. The students found his cafe's throwaway cups in the water. "We're a small coffee shop. We're not going to save the world," Korde said, but, he added, "I don't want to see our cups in the lake any more."
Today's to-go cups for hot drinks are not only made from paper. They also have plastic (塑料) to prevent leaking. This makes them hard to recycle (回收利用) . However, it is not possible that large national food and drink companies will stop using throwaway cups completely or ask all customers to bring their own. So people are looking for other solutions. Starbucks and McDonald's paid $10 million to develop the "single-use cup of the future." The result is expected to be recyclable and to break down (分解) naturally.
