The recent change from disposable paper cups to reusable plastic cups has received some negative feedback since the switchover. Many reusable cups will be lost and will cause an annoying increase in group student emails. Another flaw of the reusable cups was the misleading and contradictory instructions on the sheet of paper on the cup itself. One of the sheets  stated that the cups were microwaveable and the other denied this fact. I have never been more confused. Thankfully an email saved most cups from being microwaved. While there have been some rough patches in the process of switching over, the change is undoubtedly beneficial to the school.

The reusable plastic cups are already greatly reducing the output of waste from Groton and will continue to do so over the course of the year. Although the old paper cups “contain post-consumer recycled content,” they merely “contain” the recycled content, but require a certain degree of new paper material. Lars Caspersen ’19, a member of the Groton Association of Environment Awareness, on the topic of paper cups, says “while they do contain some recycled content, this is a misleading claim.” In addition, switching the disposable plastic caps for the paper cups was an even more detrimental waste due to the harmful impact of plastic on the environment. The extra responsibility for one’s own cup is a small price to pay for the numerous benefits to the environment.

On top of the environmental benefits, the reusable cups allow for portable beverages in places where one might not usually find paper cups. The new cups also have a larger volume which can be useful to fanatic  coffee and tea drinkers. If Groton students can look past some minor inconveniences as they already have done by accepting the new cups, the school  can greatly reduce its waste output this year and help increase environmental awareness on day to day basis.