I Am Not a Paper Cup, But I Sure Look Like One
By Christa TerryThose among us who love coffee or tea or hot chocolate and find ourselves buying it in the outside world tend to accumulate a lot of paper cups on our desks and in our cars. I’m not sure whether those things are recyclable, but I dutifully throw the cups and sleeves in with the paper and the lids in with the plastic each week. Still, it would be nice to not have all that paper and plastic being produced in the name of delicious hot beverages. Coffee from home? We can do that, but the free insulated travel mug we got at a grand opening is so dull. It was in looking for an alternative that I found these travel mugs, which I love.
The DCI I Am Not a Paper Cup cup is the standard by which I judge other travel mugs, if only because I saw it first. It doesn’t leak, has an air chamber to keep hot things hot, and it doesn’t get overhot to the touch. No logos, and no Styrofoam.
The I Am Not a Paper Cup comes with amatching silicone lid, but you might lose it, so they sell replacements.
Want something a little more colorful in which to carry your coffee? The NY style coffee cup is one suggestion, though I’m not 100% sure you can find lids to match. Full disclosure: I grew up drinking hot chocolate from these (the paper sort) on cold winter days, so I have a certain fondness for them whether they have lids or not.
Here’s another ceramic cup option, specifically one that comes with a silicone sleeve that looks remarkably like one of the nubby cardboard ones. Benefits? It’s slightly less expensive.
Or you can buy the I Am Not a Paper Cup and get a silicone coffee sleeve separately for four bucks (i.e., the price of a latte). The upside to this is that you can choose a color other than “cardboard.”
Of course, if you’re a butterfingers who routinely drops your coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, perhaps the melamine coffee cup would be the best option for you. It’s the least expensive option, it omes with a silicone lid, and it is ready to accept standard-size paper sleeves or a reusable silicone sleeve.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:06 am
No, I’m afraid you can’t recycle used paper coffee cups. Nothing wet or with food residue on it. As for the lids, if they’re marked for recycling, that’s fine, but a lot of places only accept numbers 1 and 2, and so many of the supposedly recyclable plastic items I encounter are number 5, or other types. Point being, just because it’s plastic, doesn’t mean it can go in the plastic bin.
That said, I love these cups. 🙂
November 5th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Good to know, Emily!
November 5th, 2009 at 11:53 am
These are awesome! Perfect gifts for co-workers for the holidays!
November 6th, 2009 at 8:05 am
It’s one way to green an office, Tara!
November 7th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I don’t know why wet paper wouldn’t be recyclable. I worked for a paper company and paper is soaked in water to make pulp. There may be something in the recycling process specifically about this of which I am unaware.
Our research dept was working on milk/OJ cartons and waxed corrugated boxes (used for corn and other produce that is run through cold water to stop the ripening process before it’s shipped to stores and used for wet storage).
What kind of coating would be waterproof and recyclable? The problem is that you want a box that will not disintegrate in water (one that will hold liquid or stand up in moist storage) and then will pulp for recycling later. So you want it to Not A and then to A. How do you do that?
I was laid off four years ago, so don’t know if they’ve made any progress. Probably not much. They probably laid off all the scientists, too.