World News

TL;DR: This article is misleading and sensational. Do not take it at face value.

The cups were placed in temperate water or sediment and left to leach for up to four weeks.

This isn't how the cups were intended to be used. Yes this can be used to model a threat caused by cups littered into our environment; but this article tries to spin this out first to scare you.

Coffee cups are made of a complex mixture of synthetic materials and chemicals. Manufacturers add processing aids, heat stabilizers, and other substances, many of which are known to be toxic. Even if plant-derived materials are used—such as polylactic acid, a material derived from corn, cassava, or sugarcane that’s used to coat paper cups—cup makers often add a number of other chemicals during processing.

More scare tactic information; preying on your lack of familiarity with how these things are regulated or tested. Scaremongering continues for two more paragraphs before it abruptly changes tone midway.

Improving recycling practices would be a logical step in trying to keep harmful chemicals from ending up in nature, but researchers say it’s best to retire disposable paper cups altogether. It’s difficult for most recycling centers to separate the plastic coating from the cup’s paper. In the UK, for instance, a mere handful of recycling centers take paper cups. Many coffee shops will collect them for recycling—but having to drop paper cups off takes the convenience out of a single-use product. Today, only four out of every 100 paper cups are recycled in the UK.

By now the author hopes you're scared enough to do as they ask; but if you weren't convinced; they threw in some other statistics at the end, and even breaks their suggestion by showing how inconvenient and impractical it is to recycle them.

In 2019, a research group from India filled paper cups with hot water to see if plastic particles or chemicals were released. “What came as a surprise to us was the number of microplastic particles that leached into the hot water within 15 minutes,”

They're still not done scaring you though.

On average, there were 25,000 particles per 100 ml cup. The researchers also found traces of harmful chemicals and heavy metals in the water and plastic lining, respectively.

They dump some number of particles on you; giving you zero context, and zero information about how dangerous that is. They only mention in passing the "harmful chemicals and heavy metals", giving no specific concentrations nor giving you any clues as to how much of it is in there.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389420321087

Unfortunately the above article is pay-walled; and is difficult to access. I doubt the journalists read the full paper. Everything mentioned in the article is accessible from snippets on this exact webpage; which may mean things are being taken out of context.

The same can be said of all the paper/cardboard being used in the food industry - paper straws, cardboard takeaway containers etc are all lined with PFAS and other "forever" chemicals that leach into your food. We really need a law to force companies to disclose the composition of products that come in contact with food.

We have no reason to laugh at ancient Rome's unfortunate use of lead pots for cooking beverages and lead pipes for drinkable water. Down with plastics.

Are we doing this shit again? Look the straws and disposable cups consumers use pale in comparison to the largest contributors of plastics.

The fishing industry accounts for 70% of all plastic that makes it into the ocean. Textiles and shitty tire disposal combine to contribute about 65% of the plastic you will drink.

All of these things are things politicians can “do things” about but just simply don’t. Instead we get story after story about how you dear consumer are the shitty one who is at fault for the fucked up world you live in, not these hard working captains of capitalism who are just doing their best to keep shareholders happy while trying to buy that $50M mansion.

Yes, disposable cups are a problem. Solving that problem will do zero to change the calculus on the amount of plastic you’re actively putting into your body. This whole, “it’s not the fucked up systemic pollution our society relies on that’s the issue, it you to average person who is at fault for every problem in this world” Stockholm-esque bullshit type of journalism needs to stop.

Yes the scientific paper is indeed an interesting read. But what Wired has done is take this pretty innocuous study and turned it into some green washing flagellant bullshit that literally helps the core issue zero percent. Yes, we should be better stewards of the planet. No, telling everyone they’re pieces of shit for existing does not help the cause.

I love how this is another attempt at making the consumer feel bad for being a participant somehow in the corporations' material choices for the products they make available as they see fit.

Sorry, your toxic article is a nightmare

“What came as a surprise to us was the number of microplastic particles that leached into the hot water within 15 minutes,” Anuja Joseph, a research scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, wrote in an email. On average, there were 25,000 particles per 100 ml cup.

Fuck that.

There used to be a coffee shop in my town that would encourage customers to bring in their own reusable cups/mugs. Customers that did were served their drink in a glass carafe that they could then pour into their own cup. (I believe it was done that way to comply with sanitation/health code since they can't be certain that customers had cleaned their cups.) They had a 50¢ discount for those customers and they sold their own branded mugs/cups for like $5-10.

They didn't make much on their coffee unfortunately and relied mostly on tips to take care of the baristas so the pandemic took them out of business.

Wired. lol.