At my office, a few months ago they discontinued styro-foam cups, which means I have to remember to bring in a coffee mug each morning, even if I don’t prepare a cup of home brew. Kind of inconvenient. What’s really inconvenient is after like 11am, when I don’t want coffee.
I want some water.
I can’t put water in my mug, because after you’ve tainted a stainless steel mug with coffee, everything tastes like coffee.
I could walk to the drinking fountain every few minutes, but that’s not terribly productive. Or I could walk to the vending machine and purchase a bottle of water. But that means I’m wasting money, and to be honest, a plastic bottle is about as recyclable as a styro-foam cup, isn’t it?
This was ushered in under an “environmentally friendly” memo. I suspect it’s really a “cost-cutting” policy.
Especially considering they didn’t replace them with anything. Great, you don’t want to use Styrofoam, which is horrible on the environment – but part of ‘green’ is also finding alternative ways to do things.
For water, my company got rid of our standard issue plastic cups, issued us all company logo’d pint glasses, and then replaced the old standard plastic cups with biodegradable plastic cups. The biodegradable ones are a few cents more per cup, but they buy about half the amount of them now, since most people choose to use their pint glasses.
Everybody wins. We’re more ‘green’, the costs are actually down (even with the one time purchase of pint glasses), and you have the choice between using the pint glass or plastic cups.
We did the same thing with coffee a couple of years go, eliminating styro cups, giving every employee a company mug for their use, and then filling the cupboards in our kitchens with a bunch of random mugs that our admin girls bought at thrift stores. We have a dishwasher on-site, and every night someone runs the dishwasher, so there are always clean mugs (either your own, or one of the random funky ones) available. Now, after the one time purchase of mugs both for the employees and the thrift store mugs, the company is ‘greener’ and as an added benefit never has to buy styrofoam cups again.
It’s not that hard if you think about it, but most companies simply see ‘cut costs’ not ‘find more efficient ways’… which really speaks to why a lot of companies are struggling!
Dedicate a mug to the office. Wash daily. Problem solved.
Beyond the “Green” motive, it’s probably better for your health. Styrofoam and plastics leach chemicals into your body that causes way more harm over your life than people realize-especially from hot beverages such as coffee.
Sure, some people get away with it, but why risk it. I’ve moved to stainless steel water bottles myself and a stainless steel coffee mug.
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Do this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U_xmfSwYSw. The pinnacle of efficiency.
Heya David.
Ummm….Can’t you just bring in a glass? Or did I miss something? I love your posts, but can’t you simply bring in a glass glass? Maybe one with “mises.org” on it or ever better “nothirdsolution.com” on it where you can say, “Oh, it’s nothing. Just some asshole’s blog I read from time to time.”
Trust me. It’s worth it. As per my cup that states “gilliganscorner – You can buy better, but you won’t pay more.”. A real conversation getter….
I can think of three simple solutions:
1. keep a personal stash of disposable cups
2. keep a water glass at work
3. wash the stainless mug with hot soapy water before putting water in it
i could bring in my own glass, but like the coffee mugs that I bring in, I imagine they would begin to pile up on my desk. I usually end up bringing 4 or 5 mugs home on Friday, because I forget to bring them home during the week. I’d hate to double that up.
Bring in a whole pack of styrofoam cups and keep them in a desk drawer. Buy a stainless steel water container and keep it in your desk too, wash it out at the end of the day.
I’m glad my life isn’t this difficult. LOL
At work I have a water glass. All I use it for is drinking water. It never goes home, just stays at work. Also, I have never washed it. I don’t need to since I am the only one drinking out of it. So I guess what I am trying to say is that you don’t need to wash a glass just because you drink out of it. Bring one clean glass to work once and you should be good to go for life.