History

• Single-use disposable cups were created as one solution to sanitation problems in the early 1900s, as many people were focused on finding a way to better control epidemics, such as by stopping the spread of germs through public glasses. Two entrepreneurs in Boston, Huge Moore and Lawrence Luellen, brought to market what would eventually be known as the Dixie Cup -- small, individual paper cups for drinking water, clinical uses, and serving ice cream. The company went through several name changes, ultimately receiving permission to use the name of New York toy shop "Dixie."
  
  

Common Materials

• When they were first developed, paper cups often used a thin layer of wax or glue to make them waterproof. While those materials are still used in some disposable paper cups, plastic is a more common liner. In today's market, many cups are made with plastic or foam. However, plastic has the disadvantage of not being able to hold hot liquids as it could melt, while paper and foam will not.
  
  

Recycled Cups

• In 2006, Starbucks received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to use the first disposable cup made from post-consumer fiber. While only 10 percent of the fiber in the cup had been recycled, that was after a 10-year effort to obtain approval for that percentage. There had previously been concerns about letting recycled fiber be directly in contact with consumables. According to CNN Money, Starbucks annually uses about 1.9 billion cups, and the partially recycled design will conserve about 5 million pounds of paper annually, which is about 78,000 trees.
  
  

Waste

• While offering convenience and sanitation, there has been growing environmental concerns about the impact of throwing away so many cups. An average office worker in the U.S. uses about 500 disposable cups annually, and about 58 billion paper cups are thrown away every year in the U.S. To make all those cups, it takes about 20 million trees and 12 billion gallons of water. Foam and plastic cups have been especially troublesome, as they are not easily biodegradable. But disposable cup waste is not just an issue in the U.S. One example is in Taiwan, where the nation's residents use 1.5 billion disposable plastic cups, which coupled with the accompanying plastic lids, accounts for 70 percent of waste on the country's coastline.