I’m pretty sure all our coffee cups are wax-coated, at least on the inside, even if you don’t want to believe it. Sorry to rain on your garbage parade.

I was surprised to learn the same thing about coffee cups with the recycling program that we have in Nova Scotia. My favourite fair-trade coffee roaster searched for months and finally was able to find paper coffee cups that were compostable. So it is possible to find cups that are made of paper, hold beverages and will break down.

There’s a coffee place up the street that has compostable cups which work well. Apparently they compost in about 45 days (although I’d like to witness that). I’ll have to throw one in my yard waste and see if it eventually disappears.

If you really want to conserve :p

Dear Laurel,

Yes, you can rinse and recycle your coffee cups starting on March 30. No lids, they go in the garbage still.

Thanks for your email!

Evelyn

You can email Evelyn the Envelope with recycling questions at Askevelyn@seattle.gov