Water containers: the bad, the good and those in between

I finally brought a re-useable water bottle into work on Friday. I usually use a real mug to get my water from the water cooler. However, the water isn't very cold so I often end up getting ice from the cafeteria. Unfortunately, they only have styrofoam cups. I feel really guilty using them and bottled water isn't the most environmental choice anyhow. Friday morning I noticed a re-usable plastic water bottle that I bought a while ago, but never used. I filled it with ice and water from the Brita pitcher and took it to work.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling that well so it didn't last all day. So at lunchtime, I found myself getting ice water at the cafeteria. They don't have any re-usable cups available. Fortunately, I noticed that they have switched from styrofoam to the "Ecotainer" from International Paper. It says on the cup that it’s compostable. I took it home to research it and since I can't compost it at work.

Here's what I learned at the Ecotainer.

The good part:
1) The eco part is that the liner that makes keeps the liquid inside the cup is made from corn rather than petroleum. Aside from reducing petroleum use, this allows the cup to be composted. The standard cups, with a petroleum-based liner, can't be composted.
2) The cups that the cafeteria used to carry are stryofoam. At least, they aren't using those anymore.

The bad part:
1) The paper in the cup is not re-cycled. This is very disappointing. It's hard to call any disposable cup environmentally conscious, especially one made from virgin paper.
2) Chances are that very few of these "compostable" cups will ever become compost. There's no composting container in the cafeteria, so most of them will go to the landfill. The conditions in standard landfills make it very unlikely that the cup will actually bio-degrade.

My paper cup is luckier that most. After I brought it home, I filled it with dirt and planted one of my broccoli seedlings in it. It will serve as a pot for vegetable seedlings until its worn out and ready to go back to the earth. I can only use so many veggies seedling pots; so I'll try to take a paper cup as rarely as possible, and stick with my re-usable plastic water bottle.

Let's just hope I can remember to fill it up and bring it to work.


What's in season?

Here's what I bought at the farmer's market this week.

leeks
broccoli
red cabbage
pink lady apples
navel oranges