Earth Day Pledge: No More Paper Cups
Here’s an eye-opening stat for you on Earth Day: 50 billion paper cups end up in landfills each year (16 billion in the U.S. alone). That’s a lot of coffee drinking.
Convenience is one thing. Short sightedness is another. It takes more than 20 years for a paper cup to decompose. Using just one paper cup a day adds 23 pounds of waste into a landfill every year.
We’re smarter than that. Or at least, we should be – for our kids. And their kids.
Sure, we need our morning coffee. Whether we drink it at home or buy it from any number of great coffee shops, it’s up to us to change how we drink our favorite daily must-have beverage – because even the littlest actions can add up to big changes.
Tumblers and mugs are a great alternative to the disposable paper cup typically served over the counter. Any coffee shop worth their grounds will gladly pour their coffee into your personal cup, mug or stainless tumbler (and some will even knock a few cents off what they charge for their brew). That’s one less paper cup in the environment.
To help spread the word, we showed up at a popular, local coffee house – Black Gold – and brought along a bunch of our new coffee mugs.
When we say popular, we mean “lines-out-the-door-wrapped-around-the-building” popular. Black Gold’s founder, Gary Lauters II, is a highly recognized roast master who has dedicated most of his life to perfecting his brews and enriching the lives of everyone involved in getting his coffee from tree to mug. Every step is done by hand, from the picking to the roasting. Black Gold uses its own custom designed, Made in Nevada, USA, roaster. It took 3 craftsmen nine months to complete it to Gary’s specs.
Gary also believes in giving back to those coffee farming communities to better the lives of the entire region. He is also dedicated to only buying beans from farmers who practice environmentally sound techniques to grow their crops.
Because of this, Black Gold is the perfect match to help us celebrate Earth Day with its customers. We bought them their first cup of Black Gold gourmet coffee and served it to them in a new Tervis coffee mug along with a message about saying “NO!” to paper cups in the future.
We raised awareness and shared smiles with the very receptive Venice, FL, natives.
Hopefully, by this time next year, the people we met today will have prevented 276 pounds of waste from entering landfills.
And, considering that our tumblers are made to last a lifetime, that’s a lifetime of not adding paper cups to landfills. If enough of us start to make this smart and cost-saving commitment to eliminating waste, more people will follow. It will become an eco revolution and you can tell your kids (and their kids) that you were there at the start.
So you can still have your coffee and drink it environmentally guilt-free!
Cheers!
I would like to get a Georgia Bulldog design MUG. My husband has had one for several years and needs a new one. please send me information on this type mug.
Go to our web site and search “Georgia Bulldogs” – we’re sure you’ll love what you see. Cheers!