Paper Cups

#environment - The world consumes 216 billion paper cups per year, 60 per cent of which are consumed by North America. The 130 billion paper cups used in North America require about 50 million trees to be felled and made into pulp for paper, not to mention requiring 33 billion gallons of water in the manufacturing process.

The Seattle-based Starbucks coffee shop chain alone uses more than 1.5 billion cups per year, and the plastic lining of the cups prevents them from being recyclable (in most cases), although 10% of the Starbucks cups are made from recycled material.

Source: Various sources