So Berkeley.
I take my cup to the coffee shack* with the female harlequin mannequin out front, feeling virtuous for not consuming a paper cup. After I doctor it up with milk and cream, I realize it's lukewarm. I ask the woman behind the counter to microwave it. "Oh, you don't want to microwave that cup." She pours the brew into a paper cup, negating my environmentally friendly intentions.
"Why not?" I ask, thinking she might be afraid the Tupperware will melt. "I do it at home."
The two employees pause in unison, a gasp all but hovering in the air. "You never want to heat plastic! Very bad! Toxins leach out. More and more, they are realizing that using plastic in the first place was just a Bad Idea."
I have aquired the belief that plastic wrap has saved more food from spoiling than its environmental cost, and has been a net boon for mankind, er, humankind. So I ask, "Even plastic wrap?"
"Oh yes! Even #7 plastic, which is supposed to be leach-free. Those water bottles that advertise they don't leach? Studies now indicate that they do, and it's particularly bad, because it disrupts the endocrine system. In fact, clear plastic is more dangerous than colored plastic, because it doesn't block the sunlight, and the sunlight degrades the plastic."
She poured my nuked coffee back into the Tupperware cup, and handed it to me with a serious expression. "Here you are."
I held the cup dubiously. "Thank you."
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* The coffee shack is associated with Fellini's, but don't eat at Fellini's, the pasta is always overcooked and the food is mediocre for the price.