Chick-fil-A Is Recycling Styrofoam Cups
a stack of styrofoam cups
In 2014, one of many restaurant chains known to use Styrofoam cups released a video that really excited me. The video follows the lifespan of a Styrofoam cup used and discarded at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. The cup is collected and combined with hundreds of other cups, separated from their top and straw, and then chopped up. They are then funneled into a machine where the pieces are heated and densified into bricks. Next, the material is transported to another plant that grinds the densified material to a smaller consistency and it is added to other plastics to make a new product, the bench displayed in the video was impressive.
There has been quite a bit of criticism about this process and how the concept of recycling Styrofoam is greenwashing the problem of single-use cups. One of the strongest arguments is that it assumes that the people in the restaurant stay in the building, consume the contents of the cup and dispose of it on the premises. OK, good point and there are other good points too, but Chick-fil-A does deserve some credit. They have produced proof that recycling Styrofoam is not only doable, they make it look pretty easy. So the next question is, how many Chick-fil-A’s are actually recycling the cups they produce, and for those restaurants not recycling why? We’ll look into that and get back to you. For now, watch these videos and if you want to take a look at what the critics have to say.
Tell us what you think?