Can we replace the paper cup?
Michael Lopp laments:
At my favorite local coffee shop, Lorraine gives me shit when I purchase coffee in a paper cup, “You… are not saving the world.”
She’s right. I’m not, and it’s actually worse. Each time I reach for a sip and this sad little corpse of tree flesh greets me with its pathetic weight and palpable sense of Al Gore guilt, I’m lonely.
[Via Rands In Repose: The Coffee Mug Affair.]
He mentions that paper cups affect the taste of the coffee anyway and goes on to talk about more permanent alternatives, such as coffee mugs.
So, how many paper (or plastic) cups do we use each day anyway? Chris Jordan has a photo that shows just a few of the 4 million plastic cups used each day on airline flights in the US, as part of a Ted Talks video. Then he moves on to the 40 million paper cups used in the US each day for beverages. It’s a sculpture, a wall, a mountain.
Artist Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day.
[Via : Chris Jordan pictures some shocking stats | Video on TED.com.]
The part of his talk that’s specifically about the cups is within the first couple of minutes of the video. But his whole talk is interesting, as he finds graphic ways to demonstrate some of the excess we indulge in as a society.
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