I will state off the top - I am not a coffee drinker. Wish I was, but for some reason the caffeine does not agree with me. I do like the taste, though. Despite that, I am still fascinated with how much time and money people spend at Starbucks and other coffee houses. I get the social benefit I guess - but still cannot figure out how a cup of coffee can cost five bucks or more. If you are one of those commuter coffee sippers I see on the freeway each day, more power to you. But it got me thinking. Each day you need to make a trip, slightly out of your way, just for a cup of coffee. Something you could easily make at home. They even sell Starbucks/Coffee Bean at the store. So what do we have? Wasted gas and billions of paper cups you cannot recycle. Did some research - and found out that coffee drinkers toss out more than 2 billion paper coffee cups each year. Many cannot be recycled because they are made to hold hot beverages. So we found one local company with a big name that is really working to eliminate a good part of that waste. Discounts on coffee for bringing in your own mugs, offering free commuter mugs to repeat customers, even offering old coffee grinds for your garden. Interesting and easy to do. If you don't think this is a problem.. think about this - one large North American city is looking at banning paper coffee cups altogether.
