Here in the U.S. it is estimated that 420 million cups of coffee are consumed every day.
Many of those are in disposable paper cups – which are trashed in landfills.
If you consider the life cycle impacts just of the cups – trees are cut to make paper products, the paper products are manufactured into heavy paper for cups, the cups are manufactured and then transported all around the country. Consumers buy their coffee, use the cup one time, throw it away, and most cups are then hauled off in trash trucks to landfills.
The environmental disaster of that is obvious.
Considering that coffee is grown in equatorial regions, harvested, sometimes pre-processed and then shipped to northern and southern latitude countries, a lot of energy is devoted to this addictive drink.
