Every day, morning rather rudely announces itself with the screech of our alarm clocks. Work awaits so hitting the snooze isn’t an option, yet feeling awake and alert seems almost impossible. That’s where caffeine comes in.
Actually 2.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed around the world daily. America alone is responsible for drinking almost one-fifth of all that coffee. So what does that mean?
What’s clear is that the world is addicted to caffeine. What’s a little less known is that our caffeine-guzzling habits are also creating a lot of waste. According to Sustainability is Sexy, an environmental organized based in Seattle, there are a lot of issues with regular coffee cups, many of which you may not be aware of. Most coffee cups aren’t made from recycled materials but are made from new, bleached paper. During its creation, the paper cup is covered with polyethylene, a plastic that can’t be recycled. The entire process from start to finish uses up many resources, including trees and water.
Luckily, there are ways to reduce your coffee waste even if you won’t reduce your coffee intake. Here are a few:
1.Invest in a thermos. " 1,181,600 tons of wood, 2,040,061,237 pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4,441,093,624 gallons of water would be saved yearly if Starbucks used their own re-usable thermos or mug." G E T Y O U R S H E R E
2.Recycle your coffee grounds. There are countless ways to do so, whether using them as compost for your garden or de-icing your driveway during winter.
3.Buy eco-friendly coffee.
For the more ambitious, you can always try to follow in the footsteps of UK engineer-turned-TV-reporter Jem Stansfield, who converted his car to operate off coffee waste.
To calculate how much coffee waste you create, there is a great calculator here.
Finally, you can always attempt a cool art project, like the one made by organizers of the Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia last year. It only took them 3,604 coffee cups to create the masterpiece! Does the face look familiar?
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| Mona Lisa made from coffee cups by Karina Grudnikov |
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