Many years ago I read that plastic cups, like this:
are more environmental friendly than ceramic mugs, like this:
This is rather counter-intuitive. If I remember correctly, I believe the argument was that ceramic mugs take a lot of energy to produce...
Is this true?
It's correct that the production of 1 ceramic mug requires much more material and energy than the production of 1 plastic cup, but this isn't a fair comparison. Plastic cups are generally used once or perhaps twice and then disposed of. A ceramic mug is likely to be used several hundreds of times before it breaks and is thrown away.
Let's assume you use a plastic cup twice a day and then throw it away. Alternatively you can use a ceramic mug twice a day and then wash it. Let's also assume the lifetime of a ceramic mug is 5 years. This means you need to compare:
versus
I don't have the actual numbers to do the full calculation (they would also depend on the type of plastic cup and ceramic mug and how you rinse the mug), but you can see that in the long run the ceramic mug becomes more environmentally friendly provided the energy and material costs for rinsing are less than the production, transport and disposal costs of 1 plastic cup, which should be the case if you don't use lots of heated water.
There are several articles on the Internet that do make calculations like this. Most articles compare ceramic mugs with paper cups but the idea is the same. Other assumptions in those articles may also vary from what I've written above (e.g. different lifetime of ceramic mug, transport and disposal is sometimes not included, or an article may only compare energy use instead of full environmental impact). The result is that those articles have different outcomes. Nevertheless most articles I've seen conclude that the ceramic mug wins if it's lifetime is long enough and you rinse the mug efficiently.
More info:
You've pictured a disposable plastic cup. If you assume that you can use it a few times, then you might consider that you get through one a day. A ceramic cup lasts until you drop it. The cup in your photo is only for cold drinks anyway. Paper or expanded polystyrene are usually used for hot drinks.
This link runs the numbers:
In summary, ceramic is best.
If you're clumsy or use a lot of hot water in washing the ceramic cup, you might just be better off using a polystyrene cup, maybe one per day. But if you get takeaway coffee it will come in a paper cup which is much worse.
In long run if you just rinse out the mug..... it's a good way to save on a lot of cups. But plastic is not used for hot beverages and paper cups
Yes. Environmentally ceramics requires clays and baking. If you want environmentally friendly drinkware, try glass with a handle. Infinitely recyclable, made from reused glass cullet, can be laminated to prevent breaking.
The answer for this question depends on the *Reusability factor. Both materials have a long life span(In case of ceramics it will depend on composition)
Plastic cups could be used for drinking cold water or normal water to which the plastic content does not melt and would not cause health issues. On normal and careful use plastic items could be used for a longer period of time.(ie, without being ended up as a land fill).These items will not break easily on normal household use.
In case of ceramics lets first understand its not just pottery. A ceramic is a non-metallic inorganic material composed of metal or non-metal compounds that have been formed and then hardened at very high temperatures. There are both high fired(lasts some thousand years) and low fired ceramics(Which erode faster). On the other hand, the chance of breaking ceramic is more than a normal plastic cup(*Reusability factor).
In that regard plastic is good.
