Top 5 Lesser Known Facts About Coffee Cups

1. Paper coffee cups are gaining more prominence over disposable plastic cups due to rising concerns about the latter’s recycling and environmental issues. Plastic cups are cheaper to manufacture and transport, however they are difficult to decompose. Paper cups are more expensive to produce and transport, but they can be decomposed easily.

2. Most of the paper coffee cups sold worldwide are manufactured out of freshly made wood pulp, not from recycled paper as most believe. This is because there are health concerns for some consumable products made of paper. This means more deforestation, and more cutting of forests and trees to make paper. This is projected to decrease in coming years as recycling paper becomes more efficient and safe for health.

3. 98 tons of resources are consumed in making 1 ton of paper, which are then shaped into various paper based products such as paper coffee cups. This is because the process of making paper is highly inefficient and consumes a lot of resources and energy as compared to plastic manufacturing, which is cheap and doesn’t consume as much energy.

4. Nearly 500 Billion disposable cups are manufactured annually around the world, which puts the number at nearly 65 cups per person in a year. Most of this cups are consumed in America, some 400 Million coffee cups per day, making America the biggest user of disposable cups in the world. This statistic contains both paper cups and plastic cups, with the ratio of paper cups to plastic cups increasing every year. Paper is still used in many major coffee chains, because of their cheap availability. Some coffee chains such as Starbucks also use recycled paper cups, which are slowly gaining traction as their prices decrease.

5. Nearly 200 Million tons of paper is consumed globally, shaping them into various paper products. Paper cups are just a drop in the ocean when it comes to practical applications of paper. Even in digital age where most of the transactions and notes are made online, paper still is as important as ever to people and businesses all around the world. They are used to make paper coffee cups, paper takeout food containers, printing papers, mail envelopes, decorations, arts and craft, books, notebooks, packaging labels and many more. The usage of paper is every growing, even though at a slightly slow rate, but the importance of paper in our daily lives can never be undermined.