Answer: "White, seemingly indestructible, and bad for the environment."

[Grace62]

Question: What do Republicans and Styrofoam coffee cups have in common?

Yes, 4 years after Democrats launched green initiatives in the coffee shops and dining halls of Congress, Republicans are busy reversing them. In a move that must delight Dow Chemical, Styrofoam coffee cups are back in the basement coffee shop.
Next up: light bulbs.

Way to lead guys!

[mini14]

Big stick in the eye of Nanny Nancy. Styrofoam takes 200 years to biograde. I like to drink
from Styrofoam cups, ymmmm! Put the recycling bins in the trash and mission accomplished.
Now if we could just get them to lay a sacrificial caribou down on the ice up in Alaska and
drill right through it's head to get to the oil.That would be great! If the Republicans can't
turn this CFL bulb mandate around, what are the chances they can accomplish any of their
more challenging goals?

[cbelt3]

hmmm.... and yet there is some research out there that indicates that your o so eco-friendly paper cups are actually MORE wasteful of the blessed environment than styrofoam. And definitely more so if you recycle the styrofoam.

Of course the research has been ignored because everyone knows "plastics is teh evilness"... ... my google-fu is weak... hang on.

http://greendesignetc.net/GreenProducts_..._Paper.pdf

Personally, I collect a styrofoam cup at work for water with my cafeteria lunch. The cup is then re-used for oatmeal in the morning. It is then recycled in the proper container at work (my work has increased the recycled percentage of our solid waste stream to over 80% in the last five years). My coffee goes in a stainless steel travel mug, which I hand-wash each evening and then reuse in the morning.

And the DOD ? the culture of 'trophy coffee cups' is still in place... no styrofoam or paper, just the properly emblazoned ceramic.

[graylocks]

and here i was thinking this thread was going to be about the iPad 2.

[Sam3]

Our waste disposal services do not take Styrofoam for recycling.

[$tevie]

I cannot STAND the feel of a styrofoam cup on my lips and the godawful squeaking if it rubs against some other object. It's just gross.

[Mac1337]

Imagine how much cleaner the earth would be if nobody knew chemistry.

[Black]

$tevie wrote:
I cannot STAND the feel of a styrofoam cup on my lips and the godawful squeaking if it rubs against some other object. It's just gross.

The only thing better is when ice cream or anything else you eat with a spoon is served in styrofoam-- I love scraping little bits of styrofoam into the food to get the last few bites. Yum!

[Grace62]

cbelt3 wrote:
hmmm.... and yet there is some research out there that indicates that your o so eco-friendly paper cups are actually MORE wasteful of the blessed environment than styrofoam. And definitely more so if you recycle the styrofoam.

Of course the research has been ignored because everyone knows "plastics is teh evilness"... ... my google-fu is weak... hang on.

http://greendesignetc.net/GreenProducts_..._Paper.pdf

Personally, I collect a styrofoam cup at work for water with my cafeteria lunch. The cup is then re-used for oatmeal in the morning. It is then recycled in the proper container at work (my work has increased the recycled percentage of our solid waste stream to over 80% in the last five years). My coffee goes in a stainless steel travel mug, which I hand-wash each evening and then reuse in the morning.

And the DOD ? the culture of 'trophy coffee cups' is still in place... no styrofoam or paper, just the properly emblazoned ceramic.

Google-fu indeed. Did you read that paper, supposedly written by a Penn grad student? (My respect for Penn has just plummeted.)
It contains, among other brilliant sparks of cut and paste information, this sentence:

"Now, Many (sic) cities and counties have outlawed polystyrene foam: for instance, Taiwan, (Taiwan is a city or county now?) Portland, OR, and Orange County, CA."

Now, it also recommends that perhaps Styrofoam should be BANNED and makes a set of obvious and commonly understood conclusions, basically that it's best if everyone use "reusable" cups as often as possible. I hope this student's younger sister, maybe a high school sophomore, wrote this for a nice fee.

[Pam]

I find this to be a very childish move. Like being more responsible is some kind of horrible lefty thing. Yeesh.