Climate and energy

I made a really rash promise a while back. No more disposable coffee cups. I now have to bring my own re-usable cup – or, no coffee. (Eek.)

Sounded easy enough.

Three – wait, four – brand new cups later, I have to confess… it’s not.

This whole kick started where change usually starts – when two disconnecting sections of your brain all of a sudden link up, sizzle, and you go, OH. My disconnect was that while I could recycle the cardboard cup, I was somehow ignoring the fact that those plastic lids cannot be recycled. Once in a dump, they pretty much last forever. I have probably used thousands of them in my lifetime.

Eternal life is a big concept and people argue about it all the time, but I am pretty sure no one thinks it should be symbolized by ten billion coffee cup lids. I know I don’t. That was my reconnect moment.

Then I made my rash pledge.

Of course, it’s not exactly smart or economical to buy coffee, anyway. Ideally I should be making it at home and taking it to work with me in a thermos. Sometimes this happens. Mostly it doesn’t, so I have been trying to keep a re-usable mug with me at all times. At work, in the car, in my computer bag, in my purse, etc.

Well, 95% of the time, I actually have one. At least it started out as one. Then I slipped up and lo, it was two. Next my husband decided to get with the program, and he took one of my cups. I couldn’t find my original one and had to buy another. Upon which the original one immediately turned up, oh well.

Looking back, I realize that at first my husband thought this new kick of mine was kind of cute. However, looking at three re-usable coffee cups sitting on the kitchen counter yesterday, he started to do a little math.

Every time I forget a cup, it adds up. They aren’t cheap.

This is probably why he panicked with me on the phone yesterday. We were talking, I was running late and pulling into a Starbucks (because as much as I like the KCC meetings they go a lot easier with caffeine), and I said, “Honey! Oh dear! I forgot my cup!”

He said, “NOOOOOOOO. No!”

I said, “What?”

Since I didn’t marry a dummy, he backed right off the direct order and tried trickery, I mean persuasion. He knows what arguments usually work with me, too.

“Think about all the resources it takes to make those reusable cups!” he pointed out. “Don’t buy another one! Come on. Don’t do it.”

I totally got his point. Moderation is a good thing. Still! Since I was running late, I decided to cut off the next five minutes of back and forth. Instead, I went straight to the kill shot – my underlying emotional reason. I’ll feel guilty about the lack of moderation thing later.

Sadly I said, “Oh but baby… I promised.”

(Let’s simply translate his next statement as “Argh!”)

I then rushed in and bought another blessed cup. The fourth cup. Geez.

Why, again, do I drink coffee?

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org