Starbucks and Tim Horton’s have reusable ‘commuter mugs’ available for their hot drinks and even offer a small discount to customers who use these mugs.  In 2003 alone, Starbucks customers used commuter mugs 13.5 million times, keeping an estimated 266.2 tonnes of paper from landfills.

Based on random checks of garbage bins on the fifth floor of our Vancouver office over a 2-week period, we found 60 discarded coffee cups per week. That is 1,500 lbs of waste generated per week, or up to 78,000 lbs per year (that’s 39 TONS of waste!!) from the Omicron folks on the fifth floor alone (thanks Geoff and Mike for investigating this!).

Remember to take your own mug along when purchasing hot or cold beverages from your favourite vendor - it’s a small action that can have a big impact.