Here’s why. Single-use takeaway coffee cups are unsustainable. That means that their manufacture requires the use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels for power and for plastic and paper from both native, rainforest and new plantation forests. 

Non-biodegradable coffee cups have thin plastic coatings and plastic lids that never biodegrade and are non-recyclable. That means that microbes and bacteria cannot eat them and they stay in the environment forever, permanently filling up landfills, rivers, oceans and landscapes. 

There are three rubbish islands, some say each one is the size of Tasmania, floating in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. They take up the entire ocean from surface to floor with a soupy sludge of plastic and other non-biodegradables. Nothing lives in them.

Fish and birds all mistake the sludge for food and consequently die slow, horrible deaths. 

Your cup will be used once for your convenience and then forever cause problems. It will also contaminate your coffee with chemicals from the plastic lid and coating.

A better alternative is either BioPak or Think Eco biodegradable, single-use coffee cups or better still, reusable takeaway coffee cups like KeepCups. Piccolo’s, Fishtales, Simon’s and Go Vita provide customers with these healthier options. So, if you really do care, make better coffee cup choices.

Lisa Owen, Kelp Street, Warrnambool