Council member hopes to trash disposable coffee cups

TODAY AT CITY HALL: The Minneapolis City Council buys 3,000 to 4,000 disposable coffee cups each year. Council Member Scott Benson wants the council to start using ceramic mugs instead. The throw-away cups cost the city less than $500 a year, but they generate a lot of trash. The coating that holds in hot liquids keeps the cups from being recycled or from biodegrading easily. The City Council’s Health, Energy and Environment committee, which Benson chairs, will discuss the coffee cup ban at its meeting at 1:30 p.m. today. The resolution (pdf) would force council members who haven’t made sufficient public-radio pledges to start scavenging for bargains on ironic thrift store mugs to keep their offices caffeinated. Also on the agenda: a discussion of the city’s citizen climate change micro grants (pdf) and a resolution on health care access (pdf).