Coffee Habit
Are you a mom who frequents Starbucks, perhaps? Or maybe you’ve got a Keurig at home, loaded with your favorite instant coffee to help you take on the mornings. Either way, Americans drink a lot of coffee. Unfortunately, as with a lot of the things we do every day, our coffee habit really hurts the environment. We live here — we really ought to be taking care of it better. Here are three ways you can keep your coffee habit, without hurting the Earth around you.
1) Use a Reusable Cup
Starbucks allows you to bring in your own personal tumbler to their shop. If it’s clean, they’ll fill that for you, rather than in their easy-to-throw-out paper cups. Starbucks also sells their own reusable mugs, both regular mugs and travel mugs. They have a wide variety of options, and this is the surefire way to keep the environment healthy.
2) Recycle those Keurig K-Cups
Most, if not all, single-use items are extremely bad for the environment. You use them, and then you toss them, and that’s the extent of it. At the very least, make sure you recycle the little plastic cups. That’s not going to solve the problem entirely, but it will help. This also goes for any single-use plastic item. Your water jugs, or bottles, your Coke or Pepsi products — anything. Make sure you’re always recycling them. Throwing them in the garbage is a huge waste of the plastic resource when we can reuse it, and we’re just continuing to fill up landfills by throwing them in the garbage.
3) Cut Down On Your Coffee Habit
You probably didn’t want to hear this, I know. However, cutting down on your coffee consumption is definitely a way you can help the environment. Besides, it might be better for you in general. Caffeine may be good, it might even be good for you, but that’s within reason, just like anything. Having more than one large mug of mocha a day, especially if it’s sugar infused, isn’t good for your health. By cutting down on your personal coffee habit, you’re killing two birds with one stone. You’re helping yourself, and you’re making the Earth a little greener every single day. There’s no reason to give up coffee completely if you don’t want to, but cutting back a little will only do you good.
And there you have it. Three surefire ways to help the environment, while still having your daily fill of those roasted beans that keep your energy up during the day. These tips really help with just about anything, too. If you’re drinking more water, make sure you have a reusable water bottle instead of those Ice Mountain ones you can just pitch. (But don’t cut down on your water habit — I’m not sure there’s any such thing as drinking too much water.)
