Almost every Sunday before work, I get a smoothie at this small juice places right next door. It is the best way to start out my Sunday morning except it comes in this container:
AAAHHHHH!!!!! STYROFOAM!!!!!
This bothered me of course. if i have a smoothie every Sunday for a year that is 52 Styrofoam cups and thats just me. How to enjoy my strawberry goodness and not create more Styrofoam waste? The solution was simple. Tin Tin...
Yes my Tin Tin Cup (And yes the Cup has a name thanks to my best friend). This Reusable Cup with a lid and straw is a great Substitute for a Styrofoam cup. So I went to try it out.
Attempt 1:
I walked in and asked for a regular sized smoothie. I then asked nicely if I could have it in my own cup instead. He said yes of course but after pouring my smoothie in my Tin Tin Cup he then pulled out a small Styrofoam Cup and poured the rest of the regular sized smoothie into it. He then handed them both to me and smiled sweetly as if he had done me a nice favor. He was trying to make sure I got my whole regular sized smoothie. He must have thought I had a special love for my cup because he clearly missed my attempt at reducing waste.
Attempt 2:
I once again went in with my Tin Tin Cup but this time asked for a small sized smoothie. He finished pouring my smoothie into my cup and asked nicely if I wanted the little bit of smoothie still remaining in a small Styrofoam Cup. I said sweetly, "No thank you" and "Have a great day". Attempt 3 will include me striking up a conversation on how I am trying to use less Styrofoam in my life.
My Simple Suggestion for Everyone:
These Reusable cups can be found any where and can be used just about everywhere. The hardest part is remembering them so I suggest keeping them in your car. Then you are more likely to have it when you need it. If you decide to try this out and have an interesting or educational experience please do email me and share.
Why is Styrofoam such a problem?
(Information from Earth Resource Foundation at http://www.earthresource.org/programs/youth/youthagainststyrofoam.html )
- Polystyrene is one of the top three items found on our beaches. There is six times more plastic than plankton by weight in the Pacific Gyre (www.algalita.org). 86% of ocean trash is plastic. Polystyrene is made from natural gas and oil, which are nonrenewable resources.
- Polystyrene is very difficult to recycle, especially when contaminated with food. 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups are thrown away each year! Styrofoam cups break down into smaller and smaller pieces, taking hundreds of years to biodegrade and making it very hard to pick up on our beaches. Less than 3% of all plastic is recycled.
- Over 1,000,000 birds and sea mammals die every year from plastic ingestion or entanglement. There are enough Chlorofluorocarons (CFCs) embedded in a single Styrofoam cooler to destroy all the ozone over an area the size of 20 football fields.
- As for health effects, styrene can mimic estrogen in the human body, possibly causing developmental defects and increased frequency of spontaneous abortions. The World Health Organization considers styrene to be a carcinogen.
- Styrofoam is a harmful product that is not only costing businesses funds to provide their customers with single use products but also costing our society money for clean public areas and increased trash disposal. Orange County spends $350,000 per month litter clean up!
What Else Can We Do?
To learn more you can do to reduce Styrofoam waste you can support restaurants that do not use Styrofoam pruducts. Another way you can help is to see if your city has Band Styrofoam in their food industry yet. Many cities have done this and if your city has not they might just need some one to show interest.
Thank You for reading and giving your time.
