The city's curious position on Tim's cups

You might have been surprised at the story on the front page of today's paper about recycling Tim Hortons cups.

In particular, you might have been surprised at comments from city officials that the cups are not recyclable, particularly in light of some fairly convincing evidence this is already being done.

It seems Toronto's Turtle Island Recycling is already recycling the plastic-lined cups and even the plastic lids.

But the city's Tara Sprigg told my colleague, Greg Layson, that hot beverage cups "are currently not recyclable."

"If technologies evolve (or) improve and there becomes a way to recycle post-consumer hot beverage/polycot cups, the City of Guelph will work toward recycling them," Sprigg wrote in an email to Greg.

Perhaps someone at Environmental Services might want to get on the phone.

Tim Hortons officials say Guelph customers will be able to recycle their cups and lids -- as well as chili bowls and carry-out trays -- within city limits by the end of this year.

The photo attached shows a poster inside a North Vancouver Tims location.

Comments

[Ben Bennett]

The city's position on coffee cups is actually right on.
For the record, at a meeting on coffee cups hosted by the City of Toronto on April 6, a rep from the company that had been promoting the "recyclability" of coffee cups, admitted they are a small enough percentage to be part of the allowable contaminant stream, hence an out-throw that ends up in the garbage, hence not actually recyclable.
It will be interesting to see what Tim Hortons does with their cups. Of course, if they were ACTIVELY promoting reusable mugs - and had real china mugs for their local in-store customers - this wouldn't be such an issue.

[j dimontino]

A meeting on coffee cups? Really? Oh, brother... Anyways, based on what you've written above, Ben, it seems that you've forced your point a bit. If the rep from the company admitted that the cups/lids are marginal enough to be "allowable" in the contaminent stream, it doesn't necessarily follow that they're "not actually recyclable", as you imply. I'm certainly not an active customer of Tim Horton's, but in any one I've been in, there are china mugs available for in-store use and refillable travel mugs for purchase. And by the way, there are many, many other coffee outlets using the same type of disposable cup/lid, so let's not just pick on Tim's.

[Harry]

Mr. Dimomto:

An excellent rejoiner to Mr. Bennett, who by his comments has probably never been into a Tim Hortons to discover China cups, and reusable Tim mugs which you get 10 cents off the price of your coffee when you use them.
Remember one thing - certain people expound on Guelph "myths" such as the City is an environmental leader and we have a vibrant downtown. Furthermore, the downtown is to become a urine free zone, and we must all boycot certain types of eggs. I think it was the "free" in free-range that got one Councillor's attention!
No facts - just fiction.

[Ben Bennett]

Gentlemen
A few rebuttal points, if I may.
1/. If a company is paying for a load of recycled fibres, they would not be throwing the coffee cups away if they had any value to them. If anyone knows of anyone who would be interested in taking a dedicated truck load of used paper coffee cups, that would indeed be a story.
2/. Next time you are heading down Gordon to the 401, drop in to the Tim's south of Aberfoyle and ask for a china cup.
3/. Please note when a post uses a word in CAPITALS, as in "ACTIVELY promoting reusables" it is making a point.
How many people know Tim's offers a 10 cents discount for reusable mugs? They even have a contest (Roll up the Rim) which encourages you to use a disposable cup. In fact, when I offer them my reusable Tim Horton's mug from the early 1990s they invariably offer me an empty paper cup so I can join the fun - very sweet but not the point. Sorry, but this is not my idea of active promotion of reusables.
4/. No one is picking on Tim's. The whole take-out industry is very convenient but we are paying dearly for that convenience in litter, garbage and (maybe one day) recycling costs. We can take some responsibility for that or we can choose not to. Oh, and by the way, the editorial was about Tim's.

[j dimontino]

Benjamin, (a-hem, a-hem... excuse me while I clear my throat using the Queen's English) a few rebuttal points to rebutt your previous rebuttal, if I may (a-hem).
1/:'}//:;. What is your FIRST POINT, anyways? If a company is paying for a load of recycled fibres, then they would be paying for a load of recycled fibres. Do they have any value now, or will they? Does that mean we should downplay any initiative that a company might have to, at least, try and recycle these cups, because it's a COMPANY (read, evil corporate entity) that's spearheading this initiative? Is there someone willing to take a dedicated truckload of paper cups? So many questions, Ben, that could be answered in so many DIFFERENT ways; i.e. (just one i.e., if I may), maybe bundling said cups with other paper fibres, etc.
2/;%*/. Thank you, Ben. I haven't visited EVERY Tim Horton's around here, so okay, I stand corrected, there may be more than one outlet that doesn't have CHINA cups. But in your first comment above, you INSINUATED that china cups were not available at Tim Horton's, so admit that YOU STAND CORRECTED as well. (a-hem).
3^/:=/. Yes, I KNOW that if someone uses CAPITALS they are making a POINT, so pay attention to the CAPITALS already. And no, I don't know how many people know about the 10 cent thing, and neither do you. Roll up the rim? Do what I do, and don't buy from Tim's while this promotion is on, because you'll never win anything anyways... I'll grant you that point, Ben, it's a horrendous waste of quasi-biodegradable paper cups and potentially (hopefully) recyclable lids.
4/\]&/. YES WE'RE PICKING ON TIM'S, for crying out loud. They're the big kid on the block. As you say, Ben, the editorial was about Tim's, so we're picking on them. (big evil corporate empire, Ben, you're familiar with battling those!)
Oh, and by the way, if you still have a reusable mug from the 1990s, I wholeheartedly commend you. Put it on Ebay, it might be worth something!

[Harry]

Mr Dimontino:
First my apologies for misspelling your name in my previous response.
As to Mr Bennett, please call him as his mother did - NIGEL.
Nigel is obviously ANTI-WALMART - paid for by whom? Npot hard to figure out, is it?
As well his partner Ms Gail is anti-job creation as evidenced by her recent letter to save the Jefferson Salamander, who, parenthetically has never visited Guelph, to stop the new Industrial Park. JOBS - We don't need no friggin JOBS.
Maybe one of Sir Jefferson's encounters up at Rattlesnake Point involved some common garden strumpet salamander from the Guelph boonies for an evening of fun, frivolity and fatherhood???
So Mr. Nigel, like all "Caren" supporters does not like to be critisized. That is the exclusive god-given domain of the left and the GCL.

[Bill]

Gentlemen, gentlemen. We're forgetting several key points on this debate. As per the Mercury article, Tim's can recycle the cups because they have a contract with a recycling company who will take them. Guelph doesn't. Tim's has the critical mass in southern Ontario to collect and send the cups away. Guelph doesn't. Guelph can't just put the fibres into its regular paper stream because its not regular paper, it's coated. I suppose Guelph could sort the Tim's cups out during the sorting process, but why should they? Technically, just about everything we put in the garbage is recyclable. But not everything is worth sorting out, either because there is so little of it or nobody's buying it. Take film plastic - it's recyclable, but there's no market for it and it's a bugger to pull out of the sorting line. So it goes to landfill.

We could have Tim's cup sorting line at the Wet/Dry plant, but why set up a separate line for something that should be taken back by the producer? Tim's (or Starbucks or Second Cup or Coffee Time) generate the waste, so why shouldn't they bear the cost to clean it up?

I'm glad Tim's is taking the lead by setting up collection sites in its stores. That's a positive step in the right direction -- good for Tim's. Let's see what other food outlets or retail stores will do follow suit.

[j dimontino]

Cheers, Bill, you clarified a few things for me.

[John Smith]

Yes there cups are supposedly being recycled by a company who has been involved in several questionable practices before...