Published July 20, 2010
by iris_author
In the spirit of Director Dawn Bazely’s quest for reducing waste, I put to you: Tim Hortons cups have a second life, as biofuel!
It turns out that Tim Hortons' cups, over any other coffee distributor, provide an excellent food source for bacteria used to make biofuels, such as ethanol and hydrogen. As we know, ethanol can be made from certain food crops but this has dangerous implications for issues of social justice, not to mention the beautiful sections of the rainforest being cut down in order to plant such crops. In comes the used coffee cup.
Since these cups have already been pre-treated and processed into a “bacteria-ready form” they are a splendid form of biomass, preferred over alternative sources such as wood chips which must undergo a thorough transformation involving processes like steam explosion and acid treatment before they turn into bacteria-digestible sugars.
Microbiologists Richard Sparling and David Levin have devised a process where the shredded cups are tipped into a bioreactor which is kept at a temperature and pH level perfectly suited for the bacteria. Thanks to the shredding process, the bacteria have even more surface on which to latch allowing them to munch up the mulch even more efficiently. The cup waste is therefore fuel for the bacteria which in turn produce their own waste: ethanol and hydrogen, as well as acetic acid and carbon dioxide which can be used as fuel.
Now this is great news for all the waste produced by Canada’s favourite coffee outlet, Tim Hortons, especially during “Rrroll up the Rrrim to win” promotional times. Since these cups already exist and are being used at a, sadly, prolific rate, it makes sense to use them as a source of biofuel over planting new crops solely for the production of alternative fuels. Though the commercialisation of such a technique won’t be available for at least a few years, one wonders if it would be effective in diverting waste. Certainly Tim Hortons’ new recycling bins have not proved all that popular. Perhaps if this effort were turned into a private commercial venture there would be a much stronger push for the recuperation of cups.
Still, elimination of takeaway cup waste altogether would be preferable. Despite this ingenious reuse method, the impact created by the amount of energy, water and raw materials needed to make the millions of paper cups used and then thrown away each day indicate that it is time we changed our habits. Reusable mugs remain the best solution. They can be stylish or subdued in style and provide perfect control of your beverage’s temperature. Have no fear creators of biofuel everywhere, there’s a lot more waste left to be diverted. Keep it up with your ingenious discoveries!
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