In fact, it is generally discarded. Finally, we would want to prioritize . For example, is energy use of greater environmental impact than land-applied emissions. Wood chips are the raw material for the paper. Lignin, bark, and petroleum are used as fuel.
Petroleum is used as the feedstock for the polystyrene.
The cost of the paper cup is about 2.5 times that of the polystyrene foam cup. So far, it is not looking very good for the paper cup. However, the paper cup requires three times less cooling water than the polystyrene foam cup. One would need to do an inventory analysis on this. The inventory analysis favors the polystyrene foam cup.