Step #11 - Bring your own mug

How many paper cups do you use on a regular day? If you are a coffee or tea drinker, which most of us are, you might use anywhere from 2 – 5 paper cups a day. That means on average more than a thousand paper cups a year per person. That’s not counting cups used to drink just water or all the additional waste you take with you on top of the cup, like the carton protector, the plastic lid and a little stick to stir the drink. Here is my personal consumption: On average I usually have 3 teas a day, plus 2 – 3 glasses of water. So that means that on average I could use more than 1,500 cups a year… that’s a lot!, especially knowing that I have something like 9 mugs and 7 reusable water bottles at home.

Thinking about this issue a few weeks ago I went from something like this:

From www.instablogsimages.com

To something like this

From rlv.zcache.co.uk

In North America alone, every year 50 million trees are cut to produce paper cups. When you think about this unreasonable number, think about how much time you use that cup, probably 5, 10 or maybe 15 minutes and then, to the trash. And this is not the only problem as always. Usually (meaning all the time) paper cups get branded, spending millions of dollars in printing chemicals that will end up in the garbage (or in contaminated water resources). Also to prevent sogginess paper cups are covered with plastics, which in presence of hot liquids may melt and end up being part of your drink. Then of course you have transportation, production waste, water poisoning and all the environmental problems you now know. And all of this is just to have a brand new branded paper cup every time, is it really worth it?

I found this very interesting table in appropedia.org on how a paper cup impacts the environment. Multiply by 1000 or more if you use 3-4 cups a day….

Environmental impact of a paper cup - Estimated carbon footprint, loss of natural habitat potential, loss of plant and animal life potential and/or extinction potential from making, packaging, shipping and/or using these products or services.
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+ Except for CO2 emissions, estimates are based on Habitat,_Life,_Extinction_Formulas_v2 via ecofx.org. + Estimates do not include the possible long-term ecological effects of climate change and persistent toxins.
Formulas use "human appropriated net primary production (HANPP)" to "CO2 emissions" correlation.
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1 kg(kilogram) = 2.2 lb(pounds) 1 m2(square meter) = 10.8 ft2(square feet)
1 km(kilometers) = .62 mi(miles) 1 liter = .26 gallons

Paper Coffee Cup with sleeve - 16 ounce

Some of the materials used to make this paper coffee cup (16 ounce) with sleeve.	trees, water, ink, plastic, multiple fuels
CO2 released to make and ship this paper coffee cup (16 ounce) with sleeve.	0.11 kg 0.25 lb
Loss of natural habitat potential to make and ship this paper coffee cup (16 ounce) with sleeve.	0.09 m2 0.93 ft2
Loss of plant and animal life potential (in natural habitat) to make and ship this paper coffee cup (16 ounce) with sleeve	0.27 kg 0.6 lb
How many paper coffee cups (16 ounce) with sleeves it would takes to trigger 1 potential specie extinction	1.7 billion

Reusable Coffee Mug

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As compared to a paper coffee cup, once a reusable coffee mug has been used 50 to 100 times it has almost no carbon footprint. (A small carbon footprint results from rinsing the reusable coffee cup -- especially in hot water.)

Some of the materials that may be used to make a reusable coffee mug.	steel, water, ink, plastic, multiple fuels
CO2 released to use a re-usable coffee mug.	0 kg 0 lb
Loss of natural habitat potential to use a re-usable coffee mug.	0 m2 0 ft2
Loss of plant and animal life potential (in natural habitat) to use a re-usable coffee mug.	0 kg 0 lb
How many times re-usable coffee mugs may be used around the world before they would trigger 1 potential specie extinction.	not/app

http://www.alternet.org/environment/84187/

http://www.appropedia.org/Paper_cup
http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html#_edn1