Environment

Why the Dunkin' Donuts Holiday Cup Is Actually Worse Than Starbucks

November 11th 2015

This week, Starbucks came under fire for what many of the same type of person believe to be a "War on Christmas." The biggest name in coffee took a sip out of Scrooge’s thirst cup and ripped the Christmas themed doodles from their iconic red holiday cup.

By a strange feat of coincidence, the second biggest name in coffee pulled a Beyoncé and dropped a digital copy of their holiday cup over night, you know… just to stir the pot.

The Dunkin' Donuts cup is decked out in festive, holiday spirit—a far cry from what some saw as Starbuck's' Grinchian red cup.

If Starbucks is making headlines for a seasonal cup faux-pax, how is Dunkin' Donuts STILL getting away with environmentally destructive year-round Styrofoam cups?

RELATED: Proof That There's No "War On Christmas."

In fact, putting holiday decorations on a cup is like putting lipstick on a pig—a pig that does not biodegrade.

The battle of competing environmental detriments of polystyrene (Styrofoam) vs. paper has been endlessly debated. And though both one-time-use options have been proven to be pretty bad all around, here are a few good reasons to kick our polystyrene habit.

RELATED: Ellen's Hilarious Response To The Red Cup Controversy

  1. As reported by the Boston Globe, it can take over 1,000,000 years for a polystyrene foam product (aka a DD cup) to properly decompose in a landfill. Paper cups take 20 years.
  2. Byproducts from the production of polystyrene are believed to be hazardous to global warming
  3. It's estimated that about 25 billion polystyrene coffee cups a year pile up in U.S. landfills, BBC reported.
  4. Polystyrene pollutes oceans, harming sea life, and later on, potentially humans who consume the plastic-eating fish.
  5. Many cities have placed bans on polystyrene containers including Portland, OR., San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis. In September, a judge in New York City overturned a ban that began last January, the Guardian reported.

The good news is that you can still be a festive Frannie AND a friend of the environment. Bring in your own cup. You can literally put anything you want on it. It's amazing.

Additional reporting by Alex Mierjeski.

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