I am not a Styrofoam cup from Dunkin' Donuts

Much has been said recently about "carbon footprints" and being "green" and a bunch of other "eco-friendly buzzwords I am putting in quote marks here for some reason."

It's great! I'm glad. Honor thy Mother Earth! She just wants you to be happy and settle down with a decent guy and start having grandkids for her to spoil rotten.



Maaa! I told you not to give them candy before dinner!

As coffee lovers and coffee professionals, being earth-friendly can feel like a losing battle—especially in a city like New York, where the sanitation department seemingly goes out of its way to make recycling virtually impossible (don't listen when they tell you otherwise).

Some coffee retailers—including the small company at which I knocked out my first spent espresso puck—have switched to expensive-but-ecological paper products. Others, like Joe, have started offering discounts to people who reuse or provide their own cups.

The other day, we got a shipment of fancy new travel mugs and water bottles, and I took the plunge myself. Until then, I had been part of the problem with my daily trips to D.Donuts (my office is in Hell's Kitchen! don't judge me!).

And even though I would reuse bottled-water bottles for several days*, I was starting to feel that mother-instilled guilt. (Mother Earth is even better at it than my own mom!)

So now my desk at work looks like this most days:



Sure, I feel a little silly being "The Joe Girl" at the office, but hey, they were available, I needed them, and now I can drink coffee and water all day with reckless, if green, abandon!


Browse the virtual shelves at Amazon.com for an earth conscious solution to your coffee problem! (I vote you all get the Scooby Doo one.)


* Despite rumors to the contrary, doing this is not bad for you.