6/21/10 Approximately seven to-go cups, never acquiredAfter a long weekend with my grandmother in Ohio, we hit the road again this morning, heading west towards Colorado.
I decided to do a little pro-active downsizing from here on out, vowing to use my own travel mug for the rest of the journey. Rather than buy the paper or styrofoam cups the coffee usually comes in and then toss them in the garbage, I decided to count using my own cup as multiple before-the-fact downsizes. Nobody -- other than my grandmother -- actually reuses those cups anyway, so it's a huge waste to accept them.
Let's assume I average three coffees per day on the road, and we have a two-and-a-half day trip ahead of us, that works out to about seven cups saved. Brilliant!
Even better, we stopped in two Dunkin' Donuts and a McDonald's, and nobody batted an eye at filling my ceramic Starbucks mug with their java. Hey, it's saving them money, too.
In fact, I highly recommend that everyone use their own mugs as you travel, and feel free to consider it as downsizing, if that serves as a motivating factor.
You have now become the downsizing master, young padawan. To truly know the art of the downsize is to never acquire in the first place. Your training is now complete.
ReplyDelete(Seriously, though, how Zen are you? What's the ecological impact of an acquisition never made? It's like the sound of one hand clapping. You're my hero.
Continued safe travels....)
On second thought, the even more ultimate downsize would be to stop drinking coffee.
ReplyDeleteIf you do, can I downsize the French Press?
Forget Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I'm writing Zen and the Art of Downsizing...
ReplyDelete...but I'll never give up coffee. And NO, you may not downsize the French Press. For God's sake, Man, have a little culture!