Which type of coffee cup should you opt for: reusable cups, glass coffee cups or ceramic mugs? Generally, your favorite coffee cup is very much a personal choice and your taste. Typically, most people choose their coffee mugs based on aesthetics. However, as more people become environment-conscious, they are paying more attention to other factors, too.
Here’s how glass coffee cups compare to their ceramic brethren.
1. Design Possibilities
Here glass wins hands down. Glass is a highly versatile material that presents much higher design possibilities than ceramic. Glass can be shaped into a huge array of shapes ranging from simple and practical to highly complex forms. Additionally from an aesthetic standpoint, glass buffs love the transparent nature of the material which affords them a clear view of the delicious contents therein.
2. Recyclability
Again glass is the clear winner here. Glass is highly recyclable in nature, meaning a worn or broken glass cup can be readily recycled leading to minimum environmental impact. In fact, glass, together with aluminum and steel, are highly unique in that they are the only known materials that can be recycled endlessly with no loss in quality! In comparison, plastic can be recycled 7-9 times and paper 4-6 times.
Whereas ceramic is technically recyclable, the recycling process degrades the quality so much that only some ceramic-ware can be ”down cycled” and incorporated into other ceramics but generally cannot be used to make another ceramic mug.
3. Heat Retention
Most people love their coffee hot. As far as keeping your coffee warm goes, ceramic wins. Coffee in a mug loses heat through two channels: evaporation and conduction through the walls of the mug.
Ceramic is more porous than glass, with the little pockets of trapped air acting as an insulator. This property allows ceramic mugs to lose heat more slowly through the walls than glass mugs. Furthermore, ceramic has a higher specific heat capacity (ability to retain heat energy) than glass, leading to convection losses about 11% slower than in glass. In other words, coffee in a ceramic mug will keep cooler for longer than coffee in a glass mug of similar shape, size and thickness.
In practice though, the difference might not even be noticeable. On average, a person will consume their mug of coffee in about 15 minutes, which is simply not long enough for much heat to be lost whether in a glass or ceramic mug.
The next time you are shopping for a coffee mug, don’t just think in terms of the ”coolness” factor but also about thermodynamics and environmental impact. Yes, if you are environmentally-conscious, consider adding some of the best reusable coffee cups in your collection. Remember, your choice of coffee mug says a lot about you.
