A few months back, in office, they replaced all the paper cups with Porcelain mugs in the name of being environmentally conscious. A PPT and some papers were also circulated out saying how many trees would be felled to make paper cups and its environmental impact. Conversely, the environmental impact of manufacturing porcelain mugs was also mentioned Although the initial impact of porcelain mugs would be very high as compared to paper cups, since the porcelain mugs would be reused, over a period of time we would have minimized the environmental impact and hence were one step on the way to sustainability.
This was quite an interesting move and lot was being done to promote this move. Everyone awaited this change with great anticipation.
However now, when I think about it, I think we are just bring more harmful. I would not wish to talk on behalf of others, but as far as I am concerned, definitely I feel I am wasting more and especially wasting a lot of water. I don’t know if this was considered, but porcelain cups that need to be reused have to be washed. A lot of water and detergents have to be used for this. The water used to wash the mugs are something that would not have been used in case we were using paper cups. Detergents in the water are pollutants and these will be fed into drains and in India I think they will somehow find their way into the soil and hence the ground water. I don’t think chemicals and pollutants are being cleansed and filtered out that effectively before the water mixes with the natural sources.
Anyway, irrespective of this, there is another problem. In order to save time and manpower, the mugs are being washed using dishwashers. When I have a cup stained with coffee and having dried for about 1-2 hours, I don’t think spraying hot soapy water will have any effect on the stains. The result being that almost 25% of the mugs in the trays are stained and I usually have to go through 2-3 cups before I find one that looks clean.
And when I do find the clean one, there is a lot of soap still inside the mug. It is unhealthy for me to drink anything in that and I usually have to rinse it myself with hot water before using it. I am wasting a lot of water here which was never calculated before. I can see the residual soap in the mugs when I pour water into it and it froths. After I wash with hot water, there is no froth, so rest assured that I am not hallucinating. And then there are those 75% of mugs that have chipped, or turned brown due to long standing stains and all these lead to a very unhygienic drinking experience.
I want to do good to the environment, but not at the cost of my own health and hygiene. I think this move could well be treat as yet another case of ‘Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish"’.
by Akshata
20 Jan 2010 at 21:48
Interesting! Same thing happened here. One solution would be to have US wash the mugs ourselves – but the flip side is we might just rinse it thinking who’ll check after all
And about the detergents and chemicals, this is a very minuscule part of the rest of the harmful elements being pumped into our water sources. Plus, all our dirty dishes from lunch/myriad snacks need to get washed too, the water and detergents to wash the mugs are next to nothing (in comparison). With that big picture in mind, it is a fair trade-off to want to use less paper/plastic, IMHO.
by prashu
20 Jan 2010 at 22:07
Eggjactly, I would rather have these people make mugs out of recycled paper and circulate the already cut trees rather than messing about with water and wasting water. The person washing the cups is a good idea and that is how it should be done. You will not have a problem not rinsing correctly if each employee is given his/her own cup. You will definitely wash it well knowing you have to use the same up each time. The flip side is that they need proper washing areas and sinks. In my office the only place I can wash it is in the loo. No way I am doing that. Else I would have been brining my own cup a long time back. Wife’s building has proper pantry areas where they can wash their mugs.
by Akshata
20 Jan 2010 at 22:53
Bingo! Our own mugs. But then there are the other kinds – paper/plastic/common mugs – sitting there for those who forget. Choice, I tell you, is good but not the greatest thing on earth
Paper cups here are all some % recycled. There are technical difficulties to make them 100% recycled. And too bad about no pantry – that could have saved a lot of trees!
by ashish
21 Jan 2010 at 19:31
i partly agree with you. most large buildings we work in have water recycling plants. helps to a good extent. i’ve been using a porcelain mug for the last couple of years (quantity
) but i make it a point to wash it myself everytime. i just dispense a small amount of hot water and rinse it. hth!
by prashu
22 Jan 2010 at 13:49
Actually when you look at how recycling water works, it is totally different. They cannot use the recycled water for washing crockery and such stuff which comes into contact with edible items. Recycled water is used for flushes, watering gardens etc. Clean water on the other hand is collected through rain water harvesting. There was some new apartments in Bangalore that uses this recycling concept. They have explained it very well using diagrams.