'On-the-go', 'single-use', and 'disposable' are few of the terms advertised as synonyms of 'convenience' in our consumer world. Familiar to most is the variety of throwaway cups available at any of our local coffee shops. The Guardian wrote that one coffee chain in the United Kingdom uses more than 100 million disposable coffee cups a year.

Some of these cups are primarily cardboard in composition, while others may be composed mostly of plastic or Styrofoam. However, complexity arises when considering the involvement of other components, such as ink, glue, cling film and other polymers in the finalized products. In most cases, such products would become unrecyclable due to difficulty in isolating these contaminants. In addition, as the Guardian reporter reported, there is a lack of collection bins for these products even if they were recyclable.

The throwaway culture is the consequence of our collective desire for convenience. Given that this practice is unlikely to go away, would standardization and regulation of single-use products with recycling in mind be the solution?

(Source: The environmental cost of coffee to go [Guardian])