That perfect cup of coffee seems harmless to most but most people don't realize just how much garbage is created from that must have coffee. When we throw out items used for our morning coffee, we soon forget about them as they go, as Shanks et al. (2004) states, out of sight, out of mind which is a goal that we seem to have when we need to discard our used items. From the plastic cups to the multiple containers used for flavouring, there’s more that goes into our coffee than just coffee beans. As times goes on, we are needing fancier and fancier drinks with all the fixings. It seems that grabbing a coffee at a local coffee shop is more popular that making a nice cup at home. With that causes more waste and less reusable items used. With every ingredient added to the coffee creates another bottle, package or container that ends up in the trash. While it may seem harmless to use paper coffee cups, they actually cannot be recycled. There is essentially a plastic film that lines the inside of the paper cup to prevent the coffee from leaking and this is why it cannot be recycled (Helmer, 2019, para. 3). Unfortunately, the plastic cups used for cold coffee are also very challenging. Before the pandemic hit there were many coffee shops promoting customers to bring in their own cups. Helmer (2019) mentions Starbucks giving discounts for using your own cups. As we know, the pandemic has also put this into a big halt where coffee shops are not allowed to serve coffee into personal cups. As we take a step back in our efforts to help our environment it seems it will take a lot more time to move forward again.
Image taken by Nicole Larocque, 2021
The image taken portrays the morning coffee and the garbage that comes from it. This particular garbage is significant from an aesthetic point of view as it beautifully displays a rich coffee experience. The pouring of the perfect cup of coffee and all the added flares to make it extra special and just right. Creating an image of beauty out of garbage creates an image of reality.