Paper cups are not paper cups- PlasticFreeJuly series

When we go for tea breaks or when we go for a gathering, we drink our beverages guilt freely in paper cups, thinking they are biodegradable and perfectly healthy.

But first and foremost question is, if the cup is made up of paper, won't it get soaked with the beverages that we pour in?

Have you thought about this?

The simple answer is, they have an extra coating of wax, plastic in the paper cups to prevent the beverage from soaking.

What are the effects of these waxes, plastics for us?

Firstly, when we pour hot beverages into the wax coated cup, the wax tends to melt and mix with the beverage. But our intestine is capable of rejecting this wax on its own, but when consumed in large quantities or exposed for long time, then it may lead to obstruction of the intestine causing fullness, bloating, gas accumulation.

This is even bad with use of plastic cups, they release harmful polymers when hot beverages are poured in.

Now, let us come to the biodegradability of these paper cups.

We might think, since this is made up of paper, they are fully biodegradable but that's not the reality.

The fact is that, the paper cup is sandwiched with paper in the top and bottom layer with plastic in the middle layer. Thus making the paper cups non-biodegradable.

The decomposition picture of paper cups is shown in the picture below:

According to the above image, coffee cup may take 30 years to degrade while a plastic bag takes only 20 years to degrade. Look at the comparison, the ones we are guilt freely using daily is worser than the plastic bags.

I am writing this, as a part of PlasticFreeJuly series, let us take practice and continue the practice for the rest of our lives.

This July, let us take a pledge to not to use paper cups in future.

If you are out, demand for a steel tumbler, if you are hosting a gathering, you can easily switch to steel tumblers.

Even we can carry around these steel tumblers or clay coffee mugs.

Let us save ourselves and the environment by taking small steps towards sustainable living.

Anbudan,

Divya Bharathi.