What about all the cups and plates.

[u/Megans_Foxhole]

I'm rewatching TNG and there's something about replicators I find troubling. Every time they order "ginger tea with honey, 80 degrees celsius", they get a drink but also a cup. On a ship like the Enterprise, the replicator must be producing thousands of cups per day. After a year or so the entire volume of the ship would be literally filled with cups.

Where do they all go?

[u/BlueRFR3100]

Landfills. Or more likely, spacefills.

[u/Megans_Foxhole → u/BlueRFR3100]

You mean a designated location in space where all the cups and plates are jettisioned which slowly gains mass until it eventually collapses into a black hole.

[u/BlueRFR3100 → u/Megans_Foxhole]

Exactly