Let’s face it, we live in a touch-and-go society. A morning cup of coffee has become rudimentary and efficient, but at what cost? If you have ever visited a mom-and-pop cafe in town, it is likely if you stayed to enjoy your beverage it was served in a reusable mug. Now think of your last trip to Starbucks. People in the cafe AND leaving the cafe are all carrying disposable cups. There is a key word in that last line: disposable. Not recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, or, believe it or not, edible, but disposable.
The dim light at the far end of the tunnel in this sad story is that they are trying to come up with a feasible solution to billions of their cups winding up in landfills. As bright and flowery as that may seem, the endeavor is meaningless if the most critical piece of the puzzle, YOU, don’t take your place in that puzzle and make sure the means by which the end life of the cup is ‘proper.’
So, without further ado, ‘The Starbucks Cup Dilemma,’ from the November issue of Fast Company Magazine.
