The United States loves coffee. In fact the United States is the largest consumer of coffee with about 100 million people who drink it. That number will only increase with our growing population. According to a website called Coffee Statistics, 400 millions cups of coffee are consumed each day in the United States making it about 146 billion cups per year. An individual can spend at least $1350 if they were to buy a cup of coffee a day for one year.
With the great amount of coffee we consume each year, there is also a lot of waste. We forget about all the coffee cups, stirrers, sleeves, sugar packets and straw wrappers that we use to make the perfect cup of coffee. All of these materials can be recycled but are not. What are we doing with these 100 of millions of coffee materials? Well, they are being transferred to landfills. It makes us wonder how we are forgetting about one of the easiest ways to take part in the recycling efforts; by recycling these little, forgettable everyday coffee drinking supplies. So why is that huge corporations such as Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts fail to provide recycling bins in all of their stores? It seems like an easy step to take to change the way millions of people recycle, so why is it that these corporations don’t promote recycling? The fact of the matter is the massive amounts of recyclable materials that are used everyday are being put in landfills, which can only be negative to our economy in the long run. The growing debt in the American economy is very similar to the growing piles of waste in our recycling centers and landfills.
Recycling and The Economy
The United States is dealing with a significant decline in our economy. In fact, our constant obsession with helping our economy has hurt our recycling efforts as we have failed to pay attention to it. The wasteful spending in the economy has certainly had an impact on the real waste on our environment. According to an article in the New York Times called Recycling Offers Real Economy, “Municipalities that make recycling the key component of waste management can prolong the life of existing nonpolluting landfills in rural areas and reduce the high cost of incinerator use and municipal solid-waste-composting facilities.” While this article was published over 17 years ago, it still applies to today because of our current economical struggles. The recent recession throughout the world is hurting the global environmental efforts and the recycling industry, in particular, but that does not mean we should slow down our goal to be green. Corporations like Starbucks are focusing on their growing business rather than on ways to recycle. Starbucks took an especially hard hit during the 2008 economic decline because their overpriced coffee caused people to cut down. While Starbucks was ignoring the recycling efforts in order to focus on ways to increase revenue, they were hurting the economy. Our recycling efforts can positively affect our economy; therefore Coffee industries should make the effort to put recycling bins in their stores and encourage their consumers to take part in the efforts.
Employment
According to Pennsylvania’s department of environmental protection, “by converting waste into valuable products, recycling creates jobs, contributes to manufacturing and adds significant value to the entire U.S. economy.” The Coffee Industry, being as large as it is increases employment alone but it is the recycling industry that creates job and will require more jobs as people recycle. According to an article called Can Recycling save the Economy, the recycling industry is about $236 billion and that employs about 1.1 million people. By recycling our stirrers, sugar packets, straw wrappers etc. in coffee shops, we are allowing the recycling industries to prosper as well as help the environment. The Integrated Waste Management Board of California states, “recycling one additional ton of waste will pay $101 more in salaries and wages, produce $275 more in goods and services and generate $135 more in sales than disposing of it in a landfill.” As recycling industries become more significant, the economy will take a turn for the better. Nevertheless, promoting Recycling in coffee shops is one of the many ways to contribute to these industries.
Environmental Benefits
If we allow recycling to diminish in importance, we will then continue to ignore recycling and ignore all that we have strived for to make our environment as clean as possible. As the economy recovers, we still need to be living in a healthy environment. There are a number of ways recycling can help our environment, and not just our economy. For one, it reduces the amount of waste we are putting into our landfills. Imagine the millions of sugar packets, stirrers and everything else used in coffee shops being put in a landfill and only adding tons of unnecessary waste. When we do not use our recycled materials, landfills increase in size, which can be toxic to our atmosphere. By recycling more, we are also reducing the amount of water pollution. Possibly the biggest aspect to recycling is saving our trees. The amount of trees being cut down each day to supply these small supplies for drinking coffee could be so much less. The EPA reported that 900,000,000 trees are cut down every year for American paper and pulp mills. Finally, recycling reduces air pollution by reducing the amount of waste that is incinerated.
Conclusion
People don’t think to recycle straw wrappers or sugar packets due to their small size therefore they are not always looking for a recycling bin. What were to happen though, if separate bins for recyclable materials were placed in all existing coffee shops? If everyone were to recycle these materials, it would make the world of difference. We have massive amounts of waste and yet corporations don’t consider encouraging their consumers to recycle in their shops. Over a 100 million people drink coffee, and that is millions of people who are not recycling when they should be. Our economy can benefit exponentially from recycling within the coffee industry so it is time to take the initiative and see what would happen if all the coffee drinkers of the world stopped putting their coffee cups, stirrers, coffee sleeves, sugar packets and straw wrappers into landfills.
Bibliography
"Coffee Facts and Statistics." Professor's House – Reliable advice regarding home and family. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.
"Coffee Statistics Report - 2009 Edition." Top 100 Espresso Awards Main. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.
Jackson, Sarah. "HeraldNet: Can recycling save the economy?" HeraldNet - Snohomish County's Online News Source. 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.
"Landrecwaste: Benefits of Recycling - Economic Benefits." PA Department of Environmental Protection. 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.
"Recycling: Good for the Environment, Good for the Economy." California Integrated Waste Management Board. Nov. 2005. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.
"Recycling Offers Real Economy - Letter - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 2 Feb. 1992. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.
"Report 2008." Coffee Statistics. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.
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