America Runs on Dunkin's Environmental Destruction

A lot has changed at Dunkin' Donuts over the years. The company recently switched its motto from "America runs on Dunkin'" to the very classy "I'm drinkin' Dunkin'." The fast food breakfast joint expanded its offerings, selling everything from smoothies to tuna melts now. And the Boston Kreme donuts seem to be much heavier on the Boston, lighter on the Kreme.

One item, however, has remained constant throughout Dunkin Donuts' evolution: The company's Styrofoam cups.

When it comes to packaging materials, it doesn't get much worse for the environment than Styrofoam. For one, the stuff is polystyrene, a petroleum-based plastic. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make said polystyrene, including dirty, global warming-causing oil. That's bad rep number one.

The second issue is that Styrofoam tends to clog up landfills because few recycling programs exist for the stuff. Most communities lack the capacity to recycle Styrofoam, and those that do have programs in place typically only accept packaging material. Dunkin-drinkin' folks are left with no other choice except to toss the empty cups into the trash, while America's landfills continue to fill up and leach contaminants into soil and groundwater.

While Dunkin Donuts continues on its quest to wreak havoc on the planet, other coffee providers are looking for greener alternatives. As Change.org's Environment cause recently reported, Starbucks already uses paper cups crafted from 10 percent recycled content. The company hopes to seriously improve that percentage by 2015. New technologies now allow companies to separate the plastic lining from coffee cups and filter out food contaminants, a feat that was previously impossible, preventing the recycling of paper food containers like coffee cups. Starbucks hopes to capitalize on these innovations and make all of its cups 100 percent recyclable and reusable by 2015.

Dunkin Donuts, however, has made no such commitment. What the company is committed to is holding onto its Styrofoam cups. As Dunkin' Donuts says on its Web site, "Dunkin' Donuts is committed to selling fresh brewed coffee in containers that are safe for the consumer. Our foam cup is one of the strongest in the industry and it insulates better than paper cups we have tested."

Let's tell Dunkin' Donuts that it's time for the company to take a step in a greener direction. Sign our petition asking Dunkin' Donuts to phase out its use of Styrofoam coffee cups in favor of an eco-friendlier alternative.

GOT A TIP FOR US? Is there a story or campaign you think we should know about? E-mail us at foodtips@change.org. Please also follow Change.org's Sustainable Food page on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo credit: psd via Flickr