Cups Will Live On Long After Party Dies

As in many other areas across America, plastic cups are ubiquitous on the South Fork. The Sloppy Tuna pours electric blue concoctions in them. The Surf Lodge presents stirred margaritas in them. (To which one customer complained on Yelp, “No shot. I’m paying $15 and you’re trying to serve it to me in anything less than a cocktail tumbler?”) They’re fixtures at bars, beaches, and at pool parties, part of the 33 million tons of plastic waste that Americans generate annually, according to 2013 figures from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Now, in a time of increasing environmental awareness, some businesses prefer an eco-friendly cup. If you’re sipping from a sustainable plastic cup on the South Fork, chances are it’s the Greenware one, stamped with a swirly blue and green yin yang. It’s compostable and made from biopolymer, a molecule constructed from living organisms.

Christy Cober, the director of operations at Honest Man, the company that manages Townline BBQ, La Fondita, Rowdy Hall, and Nick and Toni’s, said she is a fan of these cups, which are used at Honest Man’s takeout spots. They are durable, but “They break down easily.”

But a 2013 Stony Brook University report that examined sustainable cups concluded, “At best, degradable plastics only create small, insignificant benefits in other waste management processes.”

David Tonjes, a professor who prepared the report, explained that these cups need temperatures of over 150 degrees to degrade, which typically only occurs in large processing centers.

“None of East Hampton’s garbage that I know of goes to these industrial sites,” he said. Furthermore, these plastics could take as long as a century to break down.

Deborah Klughers, an East Hampton Town trustee who has been a vocal anti-litter and environmental advocate, said she could not fathom why using plastic would be considered acceptable at dine-in restaurants.

Some places cannot run a dishwasher because of constraints imposed by their permits. Bostwick’s Chowder House in East Hampton uses disposable cups and utensils because its cesspools would not be able to handle the heavy use of a dishwasher. The same is true of a number of casual restaurants in environmentally sensitive areas.

Frieda Reichert, the general manager at the Hideaway, said the town prohibited the restaurant from having a dishwasher because of its proximity to the water.

“We try to go as green as we can afford,” she said, explaining that the Hideaway uses Greenware for orange juice and coffee, but regular plastic for alcoholic drinks.

Additionally, limited space and money can mean forgoing recycling. Townline BBQ in Sagaponack and Bostwick’s can’t fit a receptacle on their properties. The Hideaway tosses its cups as well. Ms. Reichert said it would be too costly to hire someone to rinse and separate the plastics then drive to the recycling center. (At the East Hampton Town centers in Montauk and East Hampton, only number 1 and 2 plastic are accepted for recycling, and most of the cups used in restaurants and bars and available at local supermarkets do not fall into those categories.)

Ms. Cober echoed Ms. Reichart’s sentiment. “I can’t imagine that any restaurant at volume is doing that,” she said. She said Townline puts faith in Winter Brothers, its carting company, to sort for them.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby acknowledged this system, while better than nothing, is not as effective as sorting materials firsthand. 

The East Hampton Town Sanitation Department also has a space problem. Stephen Lynch, the commissioner of public works (and also the town’s highway superintendent), said the building is too small to recycle all that can be recycled.

 “Our facility wouldn’t be big enough to handle all the commercial waste in town,” he said.  

On Aug. 4, its plastics receptacle was brimming with empty milk gallons and bottles, while the others appeared emptier. But in 2014, it only received 76,380 pounds of plastic compared to about 1.09 million pounds of cardboard, 782,800 pounds of mixed paper, and 480,540 pounds of newspapers.

“People don’t recycle the way they should. I’m sure there’s a lot of plastic and paper and even cardboard in these bags,” Mr. Lynch said about the household garbage being dumped.

The department does not have the resources to comb through and pick out the recyclables. It would require at least 15 to 20 more workers and a conveyer belt.

Right now, 17 employees oversee the stations and run the facilities. One person works at the Montauk transfer station, but Mr. Lynch acknowledged if budget allowed, there should really be two employees. He estimated it could cost a few million dollars to overhaul and improve the current system.

“Our facility is too small,” he said. “If you don’t have the people, how do you do it?”

The town also sends plastic waste to Winter Brothers because the market for it is so poor, since China’s economy is faltering and that is where most of materials would go.

Dakota Craine, an owner of Lisa’s Lovely Organics, lives on the far side of town and grumbled about the 15-minute drive to the recycling center on Springs-Fireplace Road. She visits about once a week, but does not recycle plastics, only aluminum and cans. In her shop, she uses compostable plastic cups, but throws them in the garbage instead of her compost bin. 

“I think it would be easier for the locals if there was a garbage pickup,” she said.

Some efforts to help the South Fork cut back on its plastic waste have been successful. Bans on single-use plastic bags have been in effect for several years in certain South Fork municipalities and will go into effect in others later this year. Southampton Town implemented theirs in April, Sag Harbor enforced one on June 1, and East Hampton Town will begin forbidding them on Sept. 22. Ms. Overby, who is also a part of the litter committee, said there are no current efforts to rein in the use of plastic cups.

She would like to see recycling containers on the streets, particularly ones made from metal, not, ironically, plastic.

“We don’t have the manpower to handle these containers,” she said. The town would need to hire more workers and trucks. Their budget is tight and the 2-percent tax cap limits what services can be accommodated in the town budget.