In this blog post, Dalrymple takes issue with Starbucks for serving coffee in polystyrene cups, not because he is concerned about their environmental impact but because…
The aesthetically degrading custom of serving food and drink in polystyrene receptacles (or some such material), has a coarsening effect on daily life. Not only does it suggest that eating and drinking on the hoof are normal, socially acceptable and perhaps even economically necessary, but it also promotes some of the most unsightly littering… The rise of the polystyrene receptacle is a social, cultural, aesthetic and nutritional disaster.
In the US, Starbucks uses paper cups and not polystyrene, but I suppose that wouldn’t change his point much. Given the central importance of Starbucks espresso in the daily lives of your humble Skeptical Doctor bloggers, maybe some soul-searching is in order.
‘Starbucks uses paper cups and not polystyrene’
Which is exactly what they do here.
Why is Doctor D. taking potshots at American exports?
Well, unfortunately, Doctor, that is just life in the 21st century. We work all the time for money. The money we earned so hard for was meant for leisure, but we do not have time for leisure. And in the end, we just end up using the money to treat our ailing health due to working all the time. It is a vicious cycle. In order to fit everything we need to do in so little time, we need the paper and polystyrene cups to keep us going. There is little time to leisurely sit around for a cup of coffee. Well, that’s the life of someone living in the city anyway.