Though I am unashamed lover of Consumerism, I'm also a huge advocate of implementing common sense methods to be more environmentally friendly. This includes simple things like growing your own herbs, raising poultry, rehoming your unwanted preloved clothes and my latest thing, the KeepCup. My boss kindly gifted me one the day I started with my role and apart from pushing the brand, I'm pleased to say that I'm eliminating approximately 10.4kgs of landfill a year (that's if I purchased one beverage in a disposable cup a year) and saving myself a bit of money. It's a tad inconvenient that I have to drop into work to fetch it every time I want a coffee, but it's a small price to pay when you consider the following facts:- Every year 500 billion disposable cups are manufactured globally which equates to 75 disposable cups per person on the planet.
- If your cup is made Styrofoam it will still be clogging up landfill in 500 years to come as it is resistant to photolysis (the process of breaking down materials by protons originating from a source of light). Styrofoam is also the main component of marine debris and as a coffee/tea connoisseur you shouldn't be drinking from that cheap and nasty material anyway.
- The usage of paper globally has increased by 400% in the last 40 years. That equates to 4 billion trees culled for paper industries for every continent.
- It takes 98 tonnes of resources to make just 1 tonne of paper, which is mainly made from virgin pulp.
- Half of the plastic used in the world today is for single use items.
So after reviewing these statistics, will you be using a reusable cup? It's worth considering and makes you feel a tiny bit better about your filthy morning drug habit.
they are a great idea, and many places here (and im sure up there) have discounts for bringing your own cup, i think its the big total of 10c at our cafe, but its good for the wallet in the long run and as you say, the environment in the even longer run (which my work place is very keen on looking after).
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