On the plane to Haiti in November, I came across this little gem of conflicting messages.
Cool! I like that you’re serving me sustainably grown coffee, but…in a polystyrene cup? Talk about WTF!
Who are the people in charge of making these decisions? How is it decided that it would be OK to serve sustainably grown coffee in a polystyrene cup? Go the extra yard, make a stand. Granted, it’s not American Airline’s job, but why not?
Polystyrene is horrible material. First of all, it is a petroleum product, which means there are lots of nasty emissions that come from manufacturing it. Second, while it takes forever to decompose, it breaks apart into tiny pieces that end up deeply embedded in aquatic environments. Fish and birds don’t know it isn’t food, and often eat it. That’s not right.
Third, despite what you have been told, it is really difficult to recycle polystyrene. It’s not so much that it’s hard to recycle, it’s just that it isn’t being done very much – anywhere. There simply isn’t much of a market for it. There are a lot more reasons, but those should be enough for us to commit to using a more responsible, and positively impacting material to drink coffee out of…while on a plane…in the sky. The irony is pretty rich…and by no means is it lost on me.
The urge to invoke the hypocrisy clause is going to be too great for many. Others will ask, “isn’t it enough that they’re at least doing something?” Both are valid enough points that I’ll delve into another time. The point right now, however, is being comprehensive in your actions. Do as much as you can, when you can, with what you have.
Now, does mean that I shouldn’t get on a plane…even if it’s to go to Haiti to do humanitarian work? I don’t think so; we clearly need to operate in reality as well…taking the next, more difficult, step when we can. Serving sustainably grown coffee in a polystyrene cup is lazy. Lots of sustainability planning is lazy. That needs to change. Soon.
