The Dunkin’ Donuts Styrofoam Cup Is A Regional Icon That Had To Go

If you walk into a Dunkin’ Donuts in New England, anywhere in New England, and order a “regular iced in a cold cup,” you’ll get an iced coffee with cream and sugar in a styrofoam cup. That cup is iconic, in a region that has loved coffee since the bean first showed up on our shores. As a result, you can find the Dunk’s cup everywhere, including, sadly, in trash barrels and gutters.

Now, nearly a decade after the company promised the styrofoam cup was on the way out, Dunkin’ Donuts appears ready to leave behind the cold cup for good, replacing it with double-walled paper.

Dunkin’ Donuts is a rare holdout when it comes to styrofoam. McDonalds got rid of most of its foam packaging in the early ’90s, and the remaining 2% of its packing that’s still styrofoam will be gone by the end of the year. Starbucks has never used foam packaging, and even the rest of the fast food industry has, by and large, walked away from foamed plastic even if these businesses aren’t exactly environmentally friendly in other respects.

There’s a reason styrofoam is the first eco target of most companies: It’s freaking bad. It’s made from foamed polystyrene, doesn’t break down quickly, and an analysis of the stuff found it clogging waterways and other animal habitats. Styrofoam also photodegrades, it doesn’t biodegrade. Meaning that it simply breaks into smaller and smaller piece ad infinitum. As it becomes smaller and smaller, animals are more likely to eat it.

If that weren’t enough, cleaning up styrofoam litter costs taxpayers millions every year. The less of the stuff there is, the better.

To be fair, Dunky’s has done their best to fight the cold cup, allowing franchisees to charge extra for the cup and trying to get New Englanders to buy and use a “Cup Cooler,” a custom koozie for their cold drinks. They’ve even gotten the Patriots in on the action, but, in the end, people preferred paying a dime for the cup over and over again to a few dozen dimes and having something else to carry around. Or wearing gloves.

Needless to say, the internet took the change with all the grace you’d expect from a minor alteration to how we continue along this mortal coil:

https://twitter.com/JakeKaz1/status/961982073534861313

It’s true, to a point, that the cup is a cultural icon in New England. If you live anywhere long enough, it burrows into your bones. You pick up the little quirks and traditions of a place and one of the measures of how New England has affected you is when you order an iced coffee in winter. Ride a train in Boston in February, and no matter how bitter the cold, you’ll see everyone from willowy fashion plates to workmen with iced coffees in cold cups.

So pour one out for the styrofoam cold cup, but remember it’s for the best. In a choice between a cup and the earth, it’s really no contest.