Coffee Cup Lids - total bummer. The typical ones are #6, or expanded polystyrene (STYROFOAM).
Anyone else concerned about chemical intake from sipping hot liquid through styrofoam? (yes)
Oh, and they're not recycled. I haven't found a recycling hauler that accepts them. They're garbage - forever and ever and ever more garbage.
The "bio-plastic lids": Sorry, not buying it (literally or figuratively). I want a magic pill that makes all of this easy peasy just like everybody else - I want it so bad. But like the uproar over the BPA aluminum can linings that were replaced with BPS (BPA FREE!), trading one chemical concoction for another is a shell game, and we're all the losers. These "compostable" lids are made from a plastic "derived from" plant materials - the exact chemical make up of the lids is proprietary information (none of our business) and one of the reasons that, for the municipalities that DO accept bioplastics in their compost stream, the resulting compost can not be certified organic, or used on organic food crops. But sure, totally safe to drink hot liquids through - they said it's fine, so you're good.
I found this coffee cup washed up on Ocean Beach - the paper had dissolved leaving the plastic liner mostly intact.
Massive plastic pollution bummer obviously, but also an eye opener that you're sipping a hot liquid out of a plastic bag. Unappealing on a whole host of levels, but the chemical leaching known to happen when plastics are heated (you know how we're warned not to heat food in plastic, or put plastics in the dishwasher, or drink hot liquids through plastic straws..) should motivate everyone to bring their own cup - only it won't.
Because we're invincible and we're in a perpetual hurry.
Pulpworks has a rad 100% bagasse coffee lid. If the masses must drink coffee from plastic liners, this would at least solve the problem of bajillions of polystyrene and bioplastic lids going to oceans and landfills. Since these compressed fiber lids contain zero plastic, they are actually compostable as opposed to theoretically compostable like most bioplastics.
But here's the deal: These lids cost more (in money) than the plastic ones, so they aren't getting the needed traction in the marketplace. Crazy when you consider that they cost literally less than a nickel a piece. A NICKEL - most people wouldn't bother to pick up a nickel if they found one.
But here's my deal, and I mean it: CHARGE ACCORDINGLY FOR TO GO CUPS. You're cupless and you'll die without coffee - I get it. Sit down for five flipping minutes and have your coffee in a normal human person coffee cup like in the olden days. No? Okay fine, then pony up and pay for what you're taking and then chucking ten whole minutes later.
You need a plastic lid (you're invincible and you're worth it) - Fine, you should pay a minimum of .50 cents for the lid (we have to raise money to figure out what the flip to do with all the zillions of lids you all are throwing "away", and figuring isn't free).
example of municipal composting in Milwaukee - 100% rad, zero percent free
You need a super cool bagasse lid because you are in a hurry, but you don't want to use more plastic than is already lining the inside of your disposable paper coffee cup. It's a start. You should pony up .10 cents (we have to raise money to pay the people that have to compost that lid - composting, also not free).
You need a disposable paper coffee cup? The chemical bath is on (in) you, but please pony up .15 cents to pay to have the plastic liner separated from the paper so at least they're not 100% garbage.
Is this totally unaffordable? Understood, just bring your own cup. Problem = solved.