Seriously, enough with the disposable cups already.

"Conscience keeps more people awake than coffee." - Anonymous

Ok, here's a relatively simple one in my view.

Let's say you work in an office building and on the way to work everyday you stop in at your local Coffeepeetbucks for a nice cup of Java. Generally speaking they'll give you a single cup, with one of those sleeve thingies and a nice plastic lid. With any luck you'll at least recycle all these products, but the vast majority of them, Starbucks annual cup use alone is 1.5 Billion (that's right, it's a B, not an M), end up in a landfill somewhere. So not only are you filling landfills, but think of all the energy and raw materials that went into that cup, thingy, and lid so that it could be used once and chucked. It makes no sense.

So if you grab some Joe everyday, and you work 50 weeks a year, you're talking about 250 cups. Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and Peets, just to name a few, offer .10 back per purchase when you don't use one of their cups. So if you opt out as it were, you'd save over $25 in the first year alone. And if you invest that in a nice bond or cd, you could parlay that into a small fortune. Everybody wins right? Sure, except you can't spend any of that money because your hands are burnt from having the concerned barrista behind the bar pour scalding hot coffee into them morning after morning, and pretty soon, you've probably lost your job - and getting your pants zipped in the morning is a whole other thing.

Lucky for you there's an alternative. Re-usable coffee mugs! You can get these just about anywhere but you really want to get a quality one that is going to last, after all, they're basically buying the mug for you anyway, so why not live a little. For my money, you can't beat the mugs that Contigo makes which are available at Target amongst other places. They're really well made, durable, spill proof, and most importantly have an awesome rubber seal that is so tight that you have to open the little spout before unscrewing it due to the vacuum that can be created. They come with and without handles (that can clip on) and in all sorts of sporty colors. The one I have, which I beat on quite a bit, is going on two years and still running strong. I think it cost me 19.95, so it's more than paid for itself by now. I'm also convinced I look buffer holding it, but then again, maybe not.

And just in case you were wondering if bringing your own mug will actually make a difference, Starbucks estimates that in 2004, the first year they offered the discount, 15.1 million cups were kept from the landfills by customers using re-usable mugs saving 655,000 pounds of paper waste. Pretty cool huh.

Now if you work in an office, don't even get me started on why you shouldn't be using styrofoam. Grab yourself a nice ceramic cup, wash it out occasionally, and call it a day. On the off chance however that you work in some bizarro industry where metal is forbidden and ceramic feared, at least point your office manager to a responsible alternative such as compostable coffee cups, but if that is the case, please email as to where you work as I'd be fascinated to hear tales of such a place.

Finally, a lot of people point out that it takes energy to make that ceramic mug or metal coffee cup, and darned if they aren't right. If you feel like reading the nitty gritty, check out the specs at Ask Pablo. Compared to styrofoam use, a ceramic mug needs to be used at least 46 times to make a difference and the metal mug needs to be used at least 369 times to break even. Big numbers sure, but unless you're quittin cold turkey sometime soon, one you'll eventually hit.

Now tell me that doesn't make sense to you.

Live Sustainably

Dave

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Greendimes - Give the gift of less

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win"

-Mahatma Ghandi

If you're anything like me you hate junk mail. Not only is it a huge pain in the butt, but it wastes a ton of resources, not the least of which are trees and water. Well fear not fellow recycler, Greendimes is here. For the small price of just $15 they will not only stop 90% of your junk mail for a year, but they will plant 10 trees to boot. How cool is that? We gave this a shot a year ago and other than stuff from charities we give to, we get no catalogs or junk mail anymore. It rocks!

Sure there are a bunch of other ways to stop your junk mail, but they require a fair amount of time and work, trust me, I've tried them. The way I figure it, I'd pay $15 just to plant the trees so getting out of junk mail is just the bonus. And right now, you can give it as a holiday gift, or for $42 a Greendimes package which will get your friend the junk mail opt out, tree planting, a tote bag, a t-shirt, and two compact flourescent bulbs. Try to beat that with a stick...ya can't!

So this holiday season, why not give less, and save more.

Thanks for reading.

Live Sustainably,

Dave

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