I was shocked by a picture in my company newsletter this week that showed the staff of one department in another (not Toronto) office with a table full of coffee cups. There were stacks and stacks and stacks of disposable, paper cups on a table flanked by the smiling group. Out of curiousity they had collected their cups for a month to see how much coffee they drink. They collected 280 cups for an average of 2.1 per person per day. This tallied $406 a month. And that was the end of the information. What shocked me was the lack of mention of the amount of waste this crew had generated with their caffeine addiction.
I get that people might prefer a certain coffee chain’s brew over the stuff they could make at home. I get that sometimes it is just more convenient to grab a cup to go. But I also know at least one chain gives a discount if you bring your own mug. If someone with a weekday, two a day coffee habit brings a reuseable mug just half the time they’ll cut back on waste (say 250 cups a year) and save an average of $2.10 a month or $25.20 a year (enough to pay for a mug many times over). It’s a small change, that can make a HUGE difference. (Like reducing 10,000 cups from going to landfill over the span of your 40-year career).
