Sydney-siders could soon be seeing new recycling bins for takeaway coffee cups following a successful trial.
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Governments almost universally are happy to apply a charge if it does not cost them votes, but are even happier to put the money into general revenue to support their entitlements, pork barrelling, pet programs, and so on. It is comparatively rare for any charge to be used for the expected purpose. Eg road taxes, fees, petrol taxes, and tolls do not always fund roads or even public transport.
Government in its “infinite wisdom” sees the application of any charge as a means of increasing revenue, perhaps changing our behaviours through our wallets, but rarely as a way to fund an improvement on the issue at hand although the latter might happen from time to time.
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Should this behaviour be changed or stopped?
Unfortunately the behaviour seems universal and voting for one or the other delivers a banal sameness. The Americans responded to their frustration with government by what will be in all probability and based on evidence to date, a self defeating exercise of breathtaking proportions.
If you have the silver bullet to stop or modify that behaviour, especially with our current parties, please produce it. Voting for any party that will not have a chance to form government should be a message to the majors, but rarely has any message been taken, especially by the coalition who boasts of their supposed mandate -of one seat and a reduced count in a hostile senate. They are one mob who certainly reject messages.
I try to avoid talking politics because most of it means nothing. All I’m going to say is that people power has worked before and it will work again. We can sit on our butts and whinge that we aren’t being represented fairly, or we can do something about it. I chose the latter. 
“If you have the silver bullet to stop or modify that behaviour, especially with our current parties, please produce it”
Can you walk that talk?
Can you please elaborate so I can better answer you?
You have noble sentiments (the talk), but how do you make them work day to day (the walk) considering reality and the human condition?
Ah, so you suspect I’m a keyboard warrior. I shall briefly share with you my life story if that is what you want.
My main hobby is learning new things about science; mostly related to sustainability and the physical world we live in. This also happens to be my career, seeing as I am in the field of environmental science.
Nearly every single decision I make, be it micro or major, is based on what is most sustainable. (Feel free to pose standard situations of decisions to make and I’ll walk you through my process.) Some examples would be maximising my use of public and active transport over private transport, eating less meat, avoiding plastic where possible, etc. These are just some simple ‘buzzword’ decisions I make, but I assure you that I am more committed than that. If you really are interested, do contact me and I’d be willing to meet up and share with you whatever you would like.
More appropriate to the conversation we were having, is that I communicate with my local, state, and national representatives on matters that involve them or can be helped by them. If the person representing you does not know what you want, how can they represent you?
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That is not at all what I thought. From your many posts it appears you are engaged across a range of issues. In this case I see the political establishment as being dominated by stone heads who are detached from the electorate and focus on their own well being. What do you see as a silver bullet to modify that behaviour? We have seen their helicopter rides to party fund raisers, flights to their investment properties, expenses claimed for them to attend charity events as if they were mere celebrities, and even chauffeurs driving their dogs across town. They believe they have done nothing wrong (or they would not have done it) although step down under pressure from PR, not that anything changes because once elected they cannot seem to help themselves for joining in. The pollies job 1 through N appears to be protecting themselves from want as well as scrutiny, followed by serving their donors’ special interests, end of their list although a few get lost now and then and work for us in spite of their parties.
People power equates to votes, and many people vote like they always have just because, vote ideologically or for populist demagogues, and although the electorate is increasingly disaffected and sceptical the chances of breaking that cycle with decent people who can sway their self serving party rooms is slim. I am cynical but with our preferential voting system we most always end up voting for the ALP or LNP. Will our eventual push back resemble a Trump phenomenon with a similarly “interesting” figure, perhaps a PM Hanson, to make the point?
[quote=“natural.thought, post:31, topic:9715”]
We can sit on our butts and whinge that we aren’t being represented fairly, or we can do something about it. I chose the latter…I communicate with my local, state, and national representatives on matters that involve them or can be helped by them.[/quote]
Have they helped and as an environmentalist have you been able to educate those who are science deniers with loud voices and power bases or are you met with hand wringing lip service as they yield to special interests in their party rooms? How many cross the floor to vote for Australia instead of their party? Turnbull has a long record of voting against what he says he believes in as a prime example. FWIW I see party discipline as the root of the problem whereby those with power are able to control those with good intentions.
But we digress from disposable coffee cups.
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@AlisonPotter has put together this article on disposable coffee cups and recycling that readers may find of interest.
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Another interesting concept - edible coffee cups. I know I would support cafes that introduced this type of thing!
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Looks pretty tasty! Breakfast and coffee in one hit?
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Wonder how they made them waterproof/resistant at high temperatures. Would ge interesting to know before injesting.
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Yes, for sure. You probably wouldn’t want to take one in the car or anything like that in case it sprung a leak.
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Some of the coffee shops give you a small discount if you bring your own cup.
In my case I decided to use one of the travel cups for take away coffee.
I am trying to do my bit for the environment. My calculation was simple - During the week I have two take away coffees per day. Over the week I have 10 cups and over a year 520 cups. 520 cups waste is a lot. All my travel cups are many years old and are still doing their job saving 520 plastic cups.
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Well done you. It’s a good feeling.
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If you live in Brisbane, all single use cardboard/paper coffee cups can be recycled or placed in the yellow lid bins. List of items that can and can’t be recycled in Brisbane Council area can be found here.
The only type of paper or cardboard which can’t be recycled are those impregnated with waxes, like the hot dipped waxed fruit and vege boxes.
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Hi @phb, I’m not 100% sure Brisbane’s recycling stream can process the typical disposable coffee cup, due the the plastic film on the inside of the cup. The council document does not specify whether plastic-lined coffee cups are recyclable; it only mentions ‘cardboard coffee cups’.
That being said, the recycling process is effective enough to be able to weed out non-recyclable material. So it could be a good idea to pop them in the recycling bin anyway, and let the machinery decide if it gets recycled or not. I’d love to hear a direct answer from a recycling engineer or technician, or even a plant worker who would deal with this stuff intimately.
http://uq.edu.au/sustainability/docs/resources/ps_coffeecups.pdf
Although plastic-containing, single-use coffee cups should be prohibited all together, a short-term solution is a dedicated recycling plant for coffee cups.
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Hi @natural.thought,
In Brissy they can readily process other plastic lined food containers such as long life drink containers etc. Plastic lined paper coffee cups should be no different.
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