http://www.partysuppliesforcheap.com/disposable-tumblers/
Does anyone know how much energy is used to produce one reusable coffee tumbler?
A big deal is made about how people should ditch plastic water bottles or paper cups for reusable alternatives. And that definitely makes sense. But people also need to consider that the reusable bottles take much more energy/resources to make compared to disposable choices.
I'm curious how much energy, as compared to paper cups, does it take to make a reusable tumbler? The idea here is to see how many uses it would take before a thermos/tumbler becomes environmentally responsible. Obviously it wouldn't make sense to use a tumbler if you bought a new one every 10 uses, but it might make sense if you used a new one every 10million uses. So where is that breakeven line?
Can anyone cite sources on this? There was a study out of the University of Victoria that says (when including the energy to wash ceramic mugs) that the breakeven is closer to 1000 uses. The study was done by a Professor Hocking.
The breakeven line is between 200 to 400 uses. A desposable plastic coffee cup contains a few hundred joules worth of hydrocarbon energy and uses a similar amount in its manufacture, packaging and logistics. A cramic coffee mug weighing 200g would require around a hundred kJ of energy to manufacture it from raw materials (Assuming 5000 cups per tonne of raw clay) including the energy costs of distribution and marketing.
So you would need to use your reusable mug once a day for about a year to make it cost effective against a disposable one.
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