It's like a loose form of a gambling addiction

As Canadians, environmentalism has become much like a way of life for us. We take our reusable bags to the supermarket, we meticulously separate our recycling and we refill our water bottles.

But despite how green-minded people may be, they don't hesitate to throw away their environmental values when Roll Up the Rim cups come back at Tim Hortons. It seems like the coffee giant has an even tighter grip on the already devout Canadian population during this time as more and more people flock to their lineups for a chance at winning.

But this creates a problem. And the problem is in the cup.

The Tim Hortons cup itself looks pretty simple: cardboard and plastic, both of which are recyclable. But pouring a hot drink straight into a cardboard cup could only result in disaster, and more likely, lawsuits. So the cup is coated with a substance that makes it better stand up to both liquid and temperature.

Polystyrene is a a polymer created from petroleum and is one of the most widely used kinds of plastics in the world. It is also among the most abundant sources of environmental pollution in the world.

Polystyrene is more commonly known as styrofoam and is recognized by the Society of Plastics Industry as plastic number 6. But the product is far from being environmentally friendly, it can take anywhere from 50 to 75 years to fully break down. And many municipal recycling facilities do not even recognize it as a recyclable item.

Polystyrene is light, it floats on water and blows in the wind, meaning it is very easily dispersed. It, and other similar and as widely used plastics, even encompass the largest landfill in the world located in the center of the Pacific Ocean, called the Great Pacific Garbage Pitch.

And the so highly-coveted Roll Up the Rim cup is no exception to this pollution.

The cup itself is about 90 per cent recyclable and can be turned into products like carry-out trays, egg cartons and various tissue products. But the waxy polystyrene coating on the inside of the cup makes it's recycling a much more involved process. Polystyrene must be incinerated at extremely high temperatures, and in the case of the Tim Hortons cup different processes again are used specific to its materials.

And though it is not biodegradable it is recyclable where facilities exist. But in the case of the Tim Hortons cup, those facilities currently exist nowhere west of Toronto.

The only way for the cups to be recycled is if Tim Hortons offers in-house recycling, which means they would have to deal with all the recycle themselves. Before they can do this they must find an appropriate recycling parter in the area who will recycle the plastic number 6. And pending that appropriate parter, British Columbia Tim Hortons restaurants hope to have the in-house recycling by the end of 2010.

But despite the coffee giant's efforts at being environmentally friendly they are far from it. With the number of customers increasing during Roll Up the Rim time so too is the number of single-use cups being handed out. Even those who generally use travel mugs, and actually receive a small discount on their coffee for doing so, will accept an unused cup simply for the chance to play. That means that along with all of the coffee cups hitting the landfill are some that were never even used.

Tully's, a coffee chain based out of Seattle, was the first coffee company to change it's cup in late 2007 to be environmentally friendly. Their cup is biodegradable as it uses a bioplastic made from corn to line their cups rather than the traditional petroleum based one. But as with most things of this nature, it tends to be more expensive and therefore less popular.

But even if Tim Hortons is falling behind on the environmental front they are still colonizing almost 80 per cent of the Canadian market and selling nearly 300 million cups every year, most of which end up in the landfill. And they even seem to have become a Canadian national identity, making it difficult for anyone to take on the company, even government. In New Brunswick, a Tim Hortons focus group has emerged in which local government is embracing the coffee house's popularity, finding it to be the best place to engage citizens.

And though it's doubtful that Tim Hortons will make any dramatic changes in the near future, especially about their Roll Up the Rim contest, consumers are the ones who have to power to demand some change from the company. Starting with the recycling of the coffee cup using in-house recycling. And even though people seem to love the chance to win some of the 31 million prizes, the impact on the environment is staggering. Because when you think about it, using a cup only once and throwing it away is absurd, whether it comes with a chance to Roll Up the Rim or not. Because at this point it doesn't even seem like it's the caffeine that's addicting anymore.