Comments on: Toronto May Ban the Coffee Cup

By: Damien

Damien — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:20:09 +0000

Hey guys, I might have a small answer to this increasing problem. I found this cup called the Hookturn BYO Reusable Coffee Cup in my local cafe in Melbourne Australia.
Its Designed to look exactly like a bad take-away coffee cup, so you dont feel like your drinking from a kiddies cup.
Its made completely from Silicone so its light and flexible and they say will withstand 2000C heat. It’s made by a company called Hookturn Industries. It kept my coffee really warm but was cool to the touch. It’s awesome i love it. You can buy it online for only $10 bucks!. I’m telling all my friends.
Cheers

By: EU Officially Bans Incandescent Light Bulb | EcoRenovator.org

EU Officially Bans Incandescent Light Bulb | EcoRenovator.org — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:02:22 +0000

[...] As I’ve talked about before, bans are not always the best solution for environmental problems, but I think in this case they’re appropriate. CFLs have been on the market for quite a while, are well known by most consumers, and do not create an ever-present inconvenience. A ban may still seem a bit harsh to some people, but in the end, I think, action is better than inaction and economic incentives to purchase CFLs (which tend to only be a few dollars each anyway) will be largely ineffectual. [...]

By: meldymel

meldymel — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:08:48 +0000

My vote is on the BAN.

A Ban is the most effective way to
1. prevent the production of disposable cups
2. avoid taxation burden on the consumer
3. promote a clear message of environmentalism unlike taxation, that gets mixed up in the accusation that the ‘government is lining their pockets with my hard-earned money’

4. avoid problems of recycling of a product that is non-biodegradable or expensive to recycle.
5. a top-down approach to reducing waste that is fast, effective, enforce-able.

Although the other idea of deposit-and-recycle system actually fixes itself. The lazy people who can afford to *not* bring their own cups are further not rewarded when they don’t return their disposable cup for a deposit. If you set up “cup racks” on garbage cans then homeless or enterprising people can collect the cups and return them for a deposit. See the Vancouver garbage can at . It keeps the “recycling system humming”.

By: 25p

25p — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:08:32 +0000

In Europe, street vendors of mulled wine etc at christmas sell their products in nice porcelain mugs. You pay more, then you get most of it back for taking your mug back to them. Or, if you like the mug, you keep it. Simple.

By: tracey

tracey — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:48:57 +0000

There is always an alternative natural solution and it should be up to the company to impletment this, look at The Lush, they package all their gift boxes using popcorn inside to protect the contects…absolutely brill, 100% organic and bio degradable

By: Flint Driver

Flint Driver — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:56:43 +0000

Good. I’m sick of seeing their garbage filled tractor trailers on I-69 coming to Michigan to dump their trash.

By: 2Renew

2Renew — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:54:12 +0000

Great idea Toronto – I hope this flies. It just takes one small step to make a large improvement, whatever that step is. This will certainly get attention. People don’t conform to change easily.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:44:35 +0000

Aloha – Interesting post. We have a huge trash problem where I live (we are considering shipping it across — an ocean — to the west coast and burying it there). I’d like to read the plan – how are they planning on achieving the 70% reduction?

By: Deb Kolaras

Deb Kolaras — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:49:17 +0000

Love the post and the thoroughness. Digging it!

By: ozziedog

ozziedog — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:24:09 +0000

Sounds like a classic David Miller idiocy. So if I want a cup of coffee, I have to walk around with a mug? What about all the water wasted on cleaning these mugs? Instead, it would make more sense to make all fast food trash (cups, containers, napkins etc.) compostable. Then all the trash from the fast food places could go straight to making dirt and methane. Oh and by the way, ! HATE DAVID MILLER!

By: bart

bart — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:04:48 +0000

Why doesn’t the government incinerate itself instead, rather than terrorising us with this environmentalist non-sense. It’s yet another money grab and an attempt at avoiding the building of additional infrastructure (land-fills or incinerators).
And how does consumer waste compare to industrial waste? Why are they going after us and our money again? When is Miller’s term over?
Incidentally, the Toronto Star reporting on the issue is the same company that has been leaving its paper on my doorstep at 6am in the morning as a promotion (for free). I don’t read it, it goes straight to the blue bin. Does that strike you as waste? Circulation is impossible to reach, I gave up after 30 mins on hold.
Stop being hypocrites, people! I agree that we should care for the environment but don’t dress up your money grabs in lofty words and ideas!

By: Who Me?

Who Me? — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:51:00 +0000

BAN! BAN! BAN!

Taxes will just go unnoticed. How much are they going to tax? 10%, 20% …? Whatever is reasonable will go unnoticed.

Refunds? How many people go for refunds?

BAN! BAN! BAN!

It will hurt in the beginning, but like everything else, people will adjust.

Let the Big Guys (the coffee makers & sellers, and the City) fight amongst themselves.

By: slajax

slajax — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:41:15 +0000

I lived in Toronto for about 5 years and I am happy to see that they are finally doing something about the excess waste which consumes that city. I moved to Vancouver, and I’ve never felt more healthy.

By: Daniel Einspanjer

Daniel Einspanjer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:01:02 +0000

I don’t know, the idea of a deposit system doesn’t sound that bad to me.

Picture going in to Starbucks and being offered the choice of filling your own container or putting a dollar deposit down on a Starbucks ceramic mug. You can either bring it back in for refilling on a subsequent visit or you can turn it in to them for a dollar refund.

I think that would be a great option for the consumer, the company, and the environment.

By: Von Bilka

Von Bilka — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:53:26 +0000

I think an outright ban is something that definitely should happen, although maybe to prevent such a rapid change they could do it in steps? I think Toronto’s a great place to begin with a deposit system, The Beer Store in Ontario’s system works great. Half the store is dedicated to returning bottles, so aren’t used to just being lazy. This could go on for a year or so, and then the outright ban could come into existence.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:44:41 +0000

This is excellent news! I really hope Toronto pulls it off, despite the forseeable pushback from businesses and corporations. I think canadian cities like Toronto need to set the example for the rest of the world. It may seem radical, but I truly believe that companies that manufacture/distribute/sell any type of goods, should be fully responsible and accountable for waste reduction and recycling. In other words, if your company sells coffee cups to the public, you are responsible by law for collecting and recycling that product. This would force companies to manufacture/sell easily recyclable products, or force them to persuade their customers to avoid the wasteful container/packaging/etc.

As a side note, fast rood restaurants and food courts are some of the worst offenders. Next time you’re in a food court, just observe the amount of one-time use styrofoam and plastic utensils and discarded every minute… It’s just shameful.

By: Zro

Zro — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:24:47 +0000

I’m not a huge environmental type person, yes I recycle, but I know that I throw out a lot of things that I should be putting in the recycle.

Saying this, I would like to commend the author on a very well balanced and thought out article. It’s not just “STOP NOW OR THE PLANET WILL DIE!!!!” that we’re used to seeing.

Now, on to the business at hand. I like the author’s 2 stage approach…first a Tax, then a ban. Given the proposed solutions, this looks good. But I have a feeling that the Tax will stay even when the ban is in effect.

What about a 4th option…Give the companies a chance to find a better alternative. Using Tim Hortons as an example…What if they could find a way to make their cups so that they a) degrade quicker b) are easier to recycle, and c) just more all around environmentally friendly? This puts the ownness on the company to better serve their customers and environment. If they can find a solution to this before the Tax/Ban is put in place, then that company is exempt. And if the tax is put in such a way that the company has to pay the tax but cannot pass that charge on to their customers, there’ll be even more incentive for them to find a solution.

This type of an approach would spurr research…instead of just money that’s hoarded. Research into better ways of doing things can have farther reaching benefits. Maybe Tim Hortons develops a paper cup that starts to break down 6 months after production, and is completely broken down 3 months after that. Sure it’s just one company, but this same paper composition could be used in other packaging…So I guess another part of the regulation would have to involve the companies sharing their research for the betterment of the planet.

This issue could turn into a great discussion….as long as people take into consideration both sides…people don’t change their habits, and most are willing to pay a couple extra cents for their convenience….So keeping the “I’m better than you because I love the environment and recycle everything” attitude is going to do more harm than good. Understanding human nature and laziness and figuring out how best to work around it will do more in the long run. (and this is not directed at the author).

Signing off, drinking my coffee from Tim Hortons in a cup that doesn’t even have the nice triple arrows of recycling.

Zro

By: jamEs - modsuperstar.ca

jamEs - modsuperstar.ca — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:54:36 +0000

So much for Roll Up The Rim. Guess Tim Horton’s will have to figure out a new marketing gimmick.

By: KG2V

KG2V — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:44:18 +0000

Oh yeah – great idea

This works OK if it’s your ever day cup of Joe.

Now, say you go out, oh, to give an example, to your kids football (soccer to us in the states) game. It’s a tad chilly, and you look around, and there is a coffee vendor – but no, you didn’t bring your cup, as you usually don’t drink anything.

I like what they do here at work – your cup of coffee is 25 cents off if you bring your own cup.

If you guys do anything, the Tax is the way to go

By: Toronto Citizen

Toronto Citizen — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:31:22 +0000

Why is the burden on ordinary citizens? The city should mandate that our big coffee co’s (ie. tim horton’s, starbucks) use fully recyclable coffee cups rather than tax us yet again.