tip_of_month
Tip of the Month - November 2009
As published in the Lafayette Today newspaper.
________________________________________
There are few in Lafayette who don’t enjoy the pleasure of stopping by a local coffee shop for a cup of coffee. We are not alone. Over the past couple decades, American’s love of coffee has grown steadily and reached epic proportions. According to coffee-statistics.com Americans now drink over 100 billion cups of coffee per year. And it’s not just for adults anymore. Coffee shops now offer hot cocoas for kids, serve up frapuccinos and sweet latte drinks for pre-teens, and provide a place for teenagers to stop for a coffee on their way to or from school.

Coffee-waste
There’s one problem. A growing percentage of coffee and other hot drinks are now consumed in disposable paper coffee cups, which are not recyclable and are all thrown in the garbage. According to Starbucks, the percentage of their transactions where reusable mugs are used is 1.3 percent (for 2008). Because of this, it is estimated that 14 billion paper coffee cups are thrown away every year – enough to circle the earth 55 times and weigh 900 million pounds. And that’s just from the cups. There is also the plastic lids and cardboard sleeves to consider. Coffee waste has grown so dramatically that it now generates a disproportionate amount of all paper and cardboard waste, which makes up 40% of all solid waste going to landfills.

Unlike newspaper and cardboard boxes, disposable paper cups are not recyclable. This is because of the polystyrene coating on the cups that is required to make them waterproof. Besides not being recyclable, manufacturing this coated paper stock is very energy intensive, produces greenhouse gases, results in loss of trees, and degradation of natural ecosystems. And all of these cups needs to be transported to coffee shops. By the time a disposable cup reaches your hand, it has caused 0.25 lbs of CO2 to be emitted into the atmosphere (same as driving ¼ mile). You get the idea.

The good news is that there’s a simple solution: use re-usable coffee mugs. If you’re going to have coffee at the shop, just start asking for a “for here” mug. A real honest to goodness coffee mug! It feels better to hold and doesn’t expose your coffee to a plastic coating and lid. If you often drink coffee on the go, then invest in a re-usable coffee mug, travel mug, tumbler or thermos that you can bring to the coffee shop with you. They’ll happily fill it and often give you a .10 discount for saving them a cup!

It can be hard to remember to bring your own mug along. Start by getting in the habit of leaving your re-usable mug in your car. When you are finished with your coffee, rinse or wash the mug as soon as you get a chance, and place it back in your car for the next use. Just like re-usable shopping bags, it’s often easier to have a few mugs to cover your needs, that you can keep in your car, office, and kitchen.

So, challenge yourself to start using a re-usable coffee mug on a more regular basis. Small changes like this, can have a huge impact if millions of Americans start doing it. Let’s help start the wave right here in Lafayette! For more ideas about how to reduce your environmental impact and read success stories by Lafayette residents, visit www.sustainablelafayette.net.




pdflink to PDF of Lafayette Today that included article on page 7