Tim Horton's Coffee Cup

A Tim Hortons Coffee cup...What is the story behind it?

Distribution And Warehousing

The network of distribution centers (DC's) across Canada is a significant source of our energy consumption and, due to their transportation fleet, the main source of their corporate carbon footprint.The DC's house and transport a variety of refrigerated and frozen products across the country to the majority of Tim Horton's restaurants.

Manufacturing

Fruition fruits and fills.

Fruition Fruits & Fills is their fondant and fills manufacturing facility. It makes their fondants, fills, icings, and ready-to-use glaze, and the syrups used to make Fruit Smoothies. The production of icing and fruit filling and glaze has used a big amount of water. Since then, Fruition has focused on reducing the amount of water used in its manufacturing process. Between 2008 and 2013, they have reduced their water consumption by 21%. Their focus in 2013 was on reducing waste and improving diversion rates. This was done through efforts to teach employees the importance of reducing waste and placing it into the right waste stream. In 2013, employees increased efforts to separate plastic waste for recycling. Through these efforts and previous years’ activities, the diversion rate for Fruition Fruits & Fills increased to 89%

• Tim Horton's in 2013, both their coffee roasting plants, in Ancaster, ON, and Rochester, NY, were coffee, diverting this waste from landfill.
• The coffee chaff, the outer skin of the coffee bean, is being used as a soil additive in Ontario farms, and they are currently testing chaff as an additive for bioplastics.
• Their facilities continue to recycle 100% of their cardboard and plastic wrap.

Where are the cups transported from?

What materials are in a coffee cup?

Tim Horton's coffee cups are transported from Mexico.

Tim Horton's is known for it's coffee...

How is their cup that your coffee goes in made?

Lid-

Tim Horton's coffee cups are made of *Polystyrene. The most common hot beverage cup lid material used all over the world.

Tim Horton's Packaging

Paper- a renewable resource from responsibly managed forests. (FSF or SFI certified) It is milled using an chlorine free process.

At Tim Horton's, they consider the environment when thinking about their packaging. They choose designs that reduce the impact on the environment. Examples of this:

• Reducing material
• resizing and reconfiguring for pallet optimization
• increasing recycled materials, and using new material types and sources.

Production of the coffee cup

Plastics are made from organic products.

The materials used in the production of plastics are natural products such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt, and crude oil.

*Polystyrene- a recyclable plastic. Not all markets accept this product because in some areas it's not recyclable.

Thermoplastics are used in this process. Thermoplastics soften on heating and then harden again on cooling. There type of thermoplastic used in this process is polystyrene. (Refer to the first slide for the definition.)

Reducing The Ecological Footprint

Tim Horton's has been tracking energy consumption, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. Their goal is to continuously improve the quality of their environmental data, and enhance their understanding of our environmental performance. Our energy and water usage, as well as our greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy And Water

In 2013, our annual revenue increased 4.3% from 2012, and the number of restaurants in our chain expanded by 5%. As a result of our increased operations, our gross energy consumption for our corporate operations increased by 3%, and 11% for our franchised restaurants.(1) However, as a result of the energy efficiency and conservation programs implemented in 2013, we were 2% more efficient in the use of our energy in our corporate operations and 4% more efficient at our restaurants (when measured against revenue and average restaurant sales).

Recycling

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Their total gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2013 were 380,787 tonnes of CO2e.

The biggest total of their greenhouse gas emissions was produced by their restaurants, which represent roughly 88% of their total emissions. Emissions generated by Tim Hortons Inc. show only 11% of their total emissions, and approximately 46% of those emissions were produced by their distribution fleet alone.

In 2013, their total GHG emissions increased by approximately 5% from 2012. This increase can in part be attributed to the increasing number of restaurants (traditional and non-traditional) in their chain. In 2013, the number of restaurants in their chain grew by 5% and their operations have increased to meet this demand. To decrease the impact of their restaurants, they continue to make energy efficiency improvements to their standard restaurant design, which are incorporated in new restaurant construction and renovation projects. Additionally, their distribution fleet has continued to make improvements in fuel consumption, increasing fuel efficiency by 9.7% since 2010.

In conclusion,Tim Horton's is still thinking of better and improved ideas on how to improve the environment.

It wasn't known as to whether the coffee cup could be recycled. Through work with waste industry experts and mill trials, Tim Horton's now knows that their cups can be recycled.

In order to increase access to recycling programs for their beverage cup, they are working with organizations such as Stewardship Ontario to think of ideas with municipalities and conclude that their cups can be recycled without compromising current recycling programs. Some solutions can be very low-tech and fast, while others may involve some investment. The cooperation work with these organizations is helping to increase the recycling community’s knowledge of effective diversion of hot beverage cups.

When you stop at Tim Hortons on your way to work and you ask for a coffee. Whether it be Decaf, or their signature Original Blend, it's just a daily thing for you. A morning routine.

When they give you the coffee, do you ever stop

to think... "I wonder... how is this cup made?

How does this one cup affect the world? How does this affect me?"