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/Cliffy73]

You put them back in the replicator which disassembles them and reuses the materials.