Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you that I drink a lot of coffee. Java Juice fuels my hectic dual student-career lifestyle. But every time I walk into my neighborhood Starbucks & say my round of “good mornings” to the team of Baristas who know me & my schedule almost better than I do, I’m haunted by guilt. I forgot the re-usable tumbler…again. Here goes another cup & sleeve against my carbon footprint.

Even if they are made of recycled and/or bio-friendly materials, paper cups and sleeves still need to be produced and this impacts our planet. Americans are the leading consumers of coffee in the world collectively drinking 400 million cups of coffee per day or around 146 billion cups of coffee per year; if you buy just one cup of coffee in a disposable cup every day, you’ll creating about 23 lbs of waste in one year (http://www.environmentaa.org/whatwedo/whatwedo.php?dir=save_a_cup). That’s a lot of cups and sleeves!

So what can we do? Relax. You don’t have to stop drinking your Starbucks, Secondcup or other brand of choice. But do consider these options…

1) Bring your own cup. Once you get into (or back into) the habit of providing your own cup you’ll find it to be quite beneficial. For one thing, your beverage stays warmer longer if you invest in a thermos; no cold coffee! Also, many coffee chains will offer a small discount as a thank-you for saving the cup ($0.10 off at Starbucks adds up).