The humble paper coffee cup is a useful container of one of the world’s most loved beverage. While most people just toss it in trash bins after use, have you ever wondered how it was produced, and what happened to it after, let’s say, you abandon it?
Paper cups are made from a combination of new paper and recycled paper. Inside, they are lined with plastic or wax so that the liquid is prevented from spilling or from soaking the paper. After a single use, the paper coffee cup is disposed or recycled.
According to studies, it is not clear if the paper cup or the plastic cup shows more detrimental environmental effects. A 16 ounce paper coffee cup has 1/4 pounds carbon dioxide emissions which are obtained from use of paper from trees cut, production as well as shipping. The same size of paper cup results to a loss of potential natural habitat of .93 square feet. In 2006, over 6.5 million trees were used for making 16 biollion of cups used in the United States. Furthermore, the production consumed 4 billion gallons water which resulted to 253 million pounds waste generated.
If you think that the paper cup is 100% recycled and you can go on with the use and dispose routine, you are wrong. A small percent of recycled paper is used in making the cups because of concerns with health and safety. It is done in order to minimize the instances of contamination. Also, paper cups are difficult to degrade because of the plastic coating and this is again a difficult situation for the environment. The PE is a coating which is based on petroleum and PE coated paper cups are difficult to degrade. PLA on the other hand makes the cup easier to decompose. Paper cups in the landfill usually do not decompose or if they do, they release methane.
Before, you are probably unconscious of the contribution of a simple coffee paper cup in polluting the environment and depleting the forests of natural resources. And after knowing this, there are numerous ways where you can help conserve nature. When you are in the office, bring with you a personalized coffee mug. By doing this, your plastic coffee cup usage will be minimized. It may seem like a small contribution but your yearly contribution will be of a big help to the environment. Also, ask your officemates to do the same. Afterall, personalized coffee mugs are even better than paper cups.
The man-made greenhouse effect and the associated changes in our climate is already clearly evident. To avoid the worst impacts on nature and environment, it is necessary to reduce CO2 emissions as quickly as possible - and drastically. Likewise, it is useful to look at constantly rising energy costs and the finite nature of fossil fuels, for new, alternative energy sources.
One way to conserve the environment and our own wallets, the use of a mini-cogeneration plant, actually. A cogeneration heat and power plant (CHP) is a facility that produces both electricity and heat. It is centrally deployed at the location of heat consumption (as for example in the basement) of a home and works on the principle of combined heat and power. In it motor fuels are burned. This is for the generator to allow it to be driven and therefore provides the power supply.
This process heats the cooling water and hot gases are formed, which can be used for heating and hot water for one or more households, for example. Unnecessary heat can be temporarily stored in a storage tank for later use. The fuel that is suitable depends on what is used - vegetable oil, diesel or biodiesel, natural gas or biogas or wood pellets. If you generate more electricity than is needed, it is possible to feed this into the public grid.
What benefits arise from the use of a CHP? In any case, while benefiting the environment, by generating electricity locally, the resulting waste heat can be fully exploited. The decentralized power plants, however require a lot of energy to cool down the electricity generated in the hot exhaust gases. Input energy in a CHP plant has a much higher level of utilization, which makes a lot less pollutants released into the environment. CO2 emissions can be reduced by about half for the same amount of energy.
Another positive effect is that a cogeneration plant can be operated with renewable resources. In addition to the operation of a CHP worthwhile financially. It is independent of the flow of energy companies and their sometimes arcane pricing policy. It is also possible with this type of power of government incentives, the fuels are exempted from part of the fuel and therefore less expensive than fuel for the operation of a normal heating system. The sale of the excess current is next to a small source of income. A good way to produce energy at a good price!
