Disposable Convenience

You already know about my Starbucks hot chocolate addiction... so I might as well make another confession. My morning routine of yore was to go to Starbucks with my laptop, order my hot chocolate, find a table with a nearby electrical outlet and work for several hours.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Except... I always ordered my hot chocolate in a disposable cup. Even when they specifically asked me if I wanted it in a mug. Worse... they would sometimes ask... "is that for here, or to go"... and I would blatantly LIE and say... "uh... to go". Just so I could get a disposable cup. Despite the fact that I could save $0.10 if I got my hot chocolate in a porcelain mug. Why so attached to the disposable cup?

Because my hot chocolate stayed hotter longer in a disposable cup than in a porcelain mug. That's it... I like my hot chocolate hot... not cold. So I lied...

But I wasn't fooling anyone... The Starbucks baristas aren't dumb... they know me... they know that I never just "go"... I always stay and sit. My chronic lying nibbled away at my conscience...

Travel mug

I tried to bring my own travel mug... but the first few I tried were the wrong size for a Grande beverage (16 oz). All of the travel mugs in our cupboard were for a Tall beverage (12 oz). Obviously, there was no way I could downsize to a Tall Hot Chocolate. I mean... it's marginally cheaper but not 25% cheaper... and it's 25% smaller. Hmph! I also wasn't going to buy a new Grande travel mug from Starbucks because... well... they are expensive.

I know this is illogical and oxymoron-ish but... that's the convoluted twistings of my guilty sugar-addled brain trying to justify itself!

Sooo... I continually lied or fudged or... whatever... and kept ordering my hot chocolate in a disposable cup. Until... one day at a thrift store... I found a Grande sized travel mug (Starbucks branded no less). Hallelujah! My guilty conscience was assuaged. I proudly trotted to Starbucks the next morning with my mug tucked into my backpack. Clear conscience... hot Hot chocolate! Win-win! Yay!

That worked for... ohhhh... one day...

You see... when you get home, you need to remember to take your mug out of your backpack and then wash it. And then you need to remember to pack it up the next morning and... that didn't happen. My attempts at "bring your own mug" were not a success. And my illicit affair with the disposable cup continued. It was convenient. Bring my own mug was inconvenient. And convenience won, every time.

Starbucks recycle system

I could easily try justifying myself...

"Those disposable cups get recycled. See, Starbucks has a recycling system."
Not. Have you ever seen customers put things in those convenient holes in the Starbucks blue bin? Most people either can't read or are moving too fast to stop long enough to figure out what goes where. And... have you ever seen the baristas take those bags to a recycle dumpster? I hang around long enough at Starbucks to see what goes on. No... those clear bags of "recyclables" get taken to the garbage dumpster. There is no recycle dumpster - just garbage... and cardboard.

"Maybe they get sorted at the dump."
Seriously?! And even if they did... disposable cups are lined with a thin film of plastic. Very difficult to recycle.

"Everybody else is doing it."
Very true. But just because everybody is into harming the environment, doesn't mean I have to be.

Starbucks sign - Save the Turtles

One of the Starbucks I frequent has a staff member who is a committed environmentalist. They have chalkboard signs up all over the place encouraging the use of "for here" mugs or BYO travel mug. Back in my disposable cup era... I would walk by these signs saying "Save the turtles. Get a for-here mug".

And I would walk by these signs... ignore the beseeching eyes of the turtle... and STILL order my hot chocolate in a disposable cup.

But all is not lost. When I ditched the hot chocolate habit a year ago... I also ditched the disposable cup habit. I'm not such a rabid chai tea aficionado that I really care if my tea stays hot or cold. In fact, it's kind of good for it to cool quickly cause their hot water dispenser is scorching!

I do wonder though... I have gone to a local coffee shop where the default is a porcelain mug. You specifically have to request a "to go" cup. At Starbucks, if they don't ask you... the default is disposable cups. What if the default was not disposable? Interesting idea...

Vintage refillable lighter

And so, I sit here, sipping my tea out of a porcelain mug, proud of this one Small Step in reducing wasteful consumption. I look at the world differently though... I view things through a different lens, a lens that sees the fusing of convenience and disposability. Here's a quick list of items which feature disposable convenience... is there a solution?

• Kleenex - cloth handkerchiefs?
• disposable diapers - cloth diapers? I still have the diaper pail my Mom used!
• BIC lighters - anyone remember refillable metal lighters?
• paper towels - rags?
• paper plates - regular plates? Melmac plates?
• plastic cutlery - regular cutlery? bamboo cutlery?
• Keurig pods - I'm not a coffee drinker but... regular drip coffee maker? French press?
• plastic water bottles - bring your own metal water bottle? There are a tonne at thrift stores...
• WetWipes - regular toilet paper? I know that TP is convenient and disposable but even I have a line... trust me, leaves don't work very well... And I'm not sure using rags would work... but who knows.
• plastic bags - oooohhhh.... that's a can of worms - let's just say... those reusable grocery bags that rip after less than a year of use are not the best solution (more in another blog post)
• fast food - is there a solution? A&W at least offers chilled glass mugs if you eat-in...

And there's probably a tonne more. And yes... some of these will require more from us: more washing up... more laundry... more cooking... more work... more planning... more thought.

As I stare at this list... of which I am a serial offender... I realize I face multiple choice points in a day. Every time I reach for a Kleenex or paper towel... I make a choice. A choice for convenience. I could argue that Kleenex and paper towel are compostable... but that doesn't negate the fact that trees were cut down to make these paper products... and bleached to make them super white. I also know that regular cotton production is extremely hard on the environment.

Starbucks porcelain mug

Are there alternatives? Organic cotton? Bamboo? Hemp? Linen? A quick Google reveals that... goodness... there are options out there! Who knew there were hemp hankies?

More research required... this blog is already long enough.

I leave you with a picture of a Starbucks porcelain mug... my one Small Step towards making a difference...