Acting locally

So sitting at my desk on Friday, I had an odd thought.... Look at all the waste that comes with a single cup of coffee when bought at the little cafe in the building you work in... This cup cost me just under $2.00. A fair price.... about the same for the same amount of coffee from the Dunkin Donuts store across the street.


While the cup of coffee itself is a simple cardboard cup with a plastic top, the innovative little cardboard device to carry the cup and keep your hand from being burned by the hot coffee inside is what got me thinking... You probably can't tell from the picture, but it is made from recycled materials, and boasts about it along with stories about conservation and earth friendly practices.


As I thought about it for a minute, it dawned on me that reusing this ingenious little device for the whole week would save the cafe 9 of these a week ( I usually drink 2 cups a day). While the cafe will appreciate this (they wont have to purchase a case of these over the course of a year), I am also keeping 9 of these a week out of the office trash and subsequently out of the landfills.

When we do little things like this we don't see the global impact it has. Imagine if 100 people in just the US did the same thing I am doing... that would mean 900 of those cute little cup holders are not being put into land fills, and the recycled cardboard that was used to make them will be used to make something else more useful. The energy used to make them will not generate any Carbon Dioxide or waste water.... I don't know the what the numbers are that I am effecting, but, that little bit, multiplied by the number of people doing the same types of things.... WOW

Its these small, local acts that add up to have a global impact....

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