Every Little Bit Counts

Not sure about you but I NEED my coffee in the morning. So if I don’t have time to make it myself I will run to my local coffee shop and grab a cup of Joe. I soon began to realize how many paper cups I was wasting so I decided to bring my own.

Not only are you not burning your hand on a hot paper cup but you are saving some trees in the process….remember every little bit counts!

So the next time you run out for a cup of Joe or are meeting your gal pals for a chat at your local coffee shop think about this. Starbucks customers brought in their own mugs more than seventeen million times, keeping 674,000 pounds of paper from going into the landfill.

Americans love their coffee. By some estimates, Americans drink more than 100 billion cups of coffee every year. Of these, a staggering 14.4 billion are bought in disposable paper cups. Placed end-to-end, these cups would wrap around Earth 55 times and weigh around 900 million pounds.

Paper and cardboard make up over 40% of the solid waste buried in North American landfills. Of that 40%, a disproportionate amount is attributable to disposable coffee cups. Unlike newspaper and cardboard boxes, disposable paper cups are not recyclable. The thin lining that makes a paper cup waterproof also keeps it from being recycled. All of those cups end up in our nation’s landfills.

The manufacture of the coated paper stock used in making coffee cups requires energy. It also takes energy to manufacture cups from the paper stock. And then it takes more energy to transport the completed coffee cups from the factory to the coffee shops. All of that energy most likely comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere.

Ways you too can make a difference;

* Many coffee shops and large chains offer a small discount on your cup of coffee if you bring your own reusable mug. The discount can vary from store to store, but we’ve seen discounts of anywhere from 5 to 30%. That works out to a savings of a dime to fifty cents on a $1.50 cup of coffee.

* For some people, the hardest part about using reusable coffee mugs or tumblers is making sure to have them with you when you want to buy a cup of coffee. Routine is your friend. Always rinse out your travel mug at lunchtime, then you put it with your lunch bag to take home. If you stop and buy coffee while driving to work, make sure your travel mug gets back to the car at the end of each work day. That way it will be there then next morning when you need it again.

* There’s also a carbon impact to washing your reusable coffee mug. Heating water requires energy and that energy probably started somewhere with someone burning fossil fuels. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t wash your reusable mug! But maybe your daily routine could be to give your mug a quick rinse with cold water when you’re done with your coffee. Then give your mug a more thorough wash with warm water and soap every couple of weeks.

There is a wide variety of reusable – eco friendly cups and mugs that you can purchase online at sustainablog.org or I’ve even seen great inexpensive cups and mugs at Target too.

*** Some of this information was taken from Carbonrally, check out their site for more useful information on ways you can make a difference too.