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DID YOU KNOW?
- It’s estimated that 14 billion cups of coffee are served every year wrapped in a single-use, cardboard coffee sleeve, which add up to 2.8 billion pounds of trash.
- The average American office worker goes through around 500 disposable cups every year.
- Americans toss out enough paper and plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times.
- Green your beans and buy fair-trade, shade-grown & organic certified coffee.
- Ditch your disposable cups...and I don’t mean in the landfill.
- Change your coffee filter from paper to permanent (mesh).
- Don’t make more coffee than you are going to drink.
- Avoid using plastic coffee stirrers by adding your cream and sugar first and then pouring your coffee.
- Choose the bulk containers of sweeteners instead of individual packets.
1. Green your beans & buy fair-trade, shade-grown & organic certified coffee.
Certified Fair-trade indicates that the producers and worker receive a fair price for their goods and their production process considers social, economic and environmental factors. Buying fair trade gives coffee growers a fair shake and is worth supporting.
Certified Organic means that your coffee beans have avoided most if not all chemical inputs like fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics and food additives...and don’t forget sewage sludge!
Certified Shade Grown makes more sense if you learn some biography behind your morning brew; Coffee comes from the roasted and ground-up beans of coffee plants. Traditionally, coffee has been grown under a canopy of shade trees. But lo and behold, new trees have been developed to produce more beans cheaper and faster. This doesn’t sound so bad to a java junkie, but there are some environmental repercussions...of course. Although the sun coffee produces more coffee per acre, it requires lots of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals create serious water and other pollution problems and expose workers to serious health risks. Moreover, when the land is stripped of trees to grow coffee, numerous species of animals, plants and birds are stripped of their habitat. So now do you see how one person can make a difference? Look for these certification labels next time you’re buying beans.
2. Ditch your disposable cups...and I don’t mean in the landfill.
Will it help if I recite the waste we create and the trees we kill by using a cup or two or three each day and tossing it? That would be 14 billion cups of coffee served every year wrapped in a single-use, cardboard coffee sleeve, adding up to 2.8 billion pounds of trash and killing more than 6.5 million trees each year. Now are you ready to consider another option?
- Ceramic – most realistic in a “stay and sip” situation at home or office.
- Stainless steel – for an on the go cup o’ Joe this option lives longer than its plastic partner.
- Petroleum plastic – if you already own one then by all means use it. But the life of that plastic mug won’t hold up as long as the stainless and will need to be replaced sooner.
But don’t miss the message in the mug, any of these options are better than a one-time use paper cup. 3. Change your coffee filter from paper to permanent (mesh)
It all comes down to waste and taste. Paper filters a one-time use item that you have to purchase over and over again.
It’s a little thing. You won’t save the planet by saying goodbye to paper coffee filters — but you might save a few dollars and make a better Monday morning cup of coffee. Apart from being wasteful, paper filters absorb some of the delicate aromatic oils which give coffee its flavor. So try a metal basket-type filter, instead. They’ll fit any automatic drip coffee maker, and should last for years. Or take a cue from coffee enthusiasts who swear by French-press coffee makers. No filters, a fast brew, and rich coffee flavor. Who knew saving money could taste so good?
