Be smarter with water usage-cut water footprint (Sept. 6)

       For quite awhile now I’ve said I’m going to cut back on my coffee consumption, but I never really do.  I like (ok, love) coffee a whole lot and it’s tough to cut back.  Sure, cups of coffee seem pretty innocuous, don’t they? But, as with most things, there’s much more than meets the eye.

            I try to get organic, fair trade coffee in the hopes that it’s really, truly a more responsible choice, but even if I do and even if it is, that’s not the end of the story.  The story actually begins with realizing that there’s a heckuva lot more water involved in that cup of coffee than what was used to brew it. 

That single cup of coffee actually has 37 gallons of water behind it. It’s called ‘virtual water’ and it’s how much water was needed to make the product, whatever it is, that you possess.

With this summer’s near drought and the constant re-realization that we need to conserve water, it’s a topic that deserves attention.   Discover Magazine puts it this way in their article titled “Everything You Know About Water Conservation Is Wrong:”  Forget short showers. Worry about the 6,340 gallons of “virtual water” in your leather bag.”

Consider how much water it takes to produce not just your food, but your paper, your clothes, and myriad other things.  We waste way too much water in this country when it’s more important than ever to be smart with it and it’s a huge issue, but here are some food related ways to conserve virtual water:

Try to avoid bottled water and use refillable canteens when possible.

Eat less meat.  Meat requires 5-10 times more water than vegetables, so by cutting back on meat, you’re conserving hundreds of gallons of water.

Don’t waste leftovers.  Throwing food away wastes all that water that went into making that food, and besides, the less cooking the better, right?

Drink more water and less coffee, tea, soda and all those other beverages, all of which have a much higher water footprint than water from the tap.

Fron lips to landfill 364 days a year...

The night before Earth Day I learned that Starbucks has a yearly campaign to give a free fill-up of coffee or tea to anyone who brings in their own reusable mug on Earth Day.


In the words of Shania Twain: that don’t impress me much.

It sounds good, at first. But a closer look and some critical thinking makes it obvious that Bucks isn’t as green as they claim, and in fact this is a great example of greenwashing, when a company tries to appear more eco-friendly than they really are.

Let’s start with the paper cups, which are bleached. Not good. Why don’t they use unbleached cups? And if you think the paper cup is recyclable? Think again.

The cup goes from your lips to the landfill. It’s got a plastic coating, making the recycling process much harder (and the plastic coating nixes its compostability.) Supply creates demand though, and if Starbucks collected the cups for recycling—numbering around three billion a YEAR—recycling centers would respond.

And? There are compostable paper cups in green coffee shops RIGHT NOW…but not in Starbucks.

Coffee shops truly trying to be green will promote reusable mugs and cups. Do Starbucks employees ever ask ‘for here or to go?’ and serve ‘for here’ customers drinks in ceramic mugs?

I’ve never seen that happen.

Bucks also touts on their website that they give 10 cents off customers drinks when they bring their own mug. Even though ten cents is lame, how many people know about the ten cents off? If Bucks really wants to make an environmental change, where are the signs reminding customers to bring their reusable mug or to get their drink in a ‘for here’ mug?

Admittedly, I rarely step inside a Starbucks, but I’ve never seen such a sign.

Clearly, paper throwaway cups are the standard, which is totally backwards. And if you do bring your own mug, baristas often forget that you did and put your drink in a paper cup anyway. Or, they measure your Cinnamon Dolce in a paper cup before pouring into your reusable cup. Both defeat the purpose. Palm to forehead.

Back to Earth Day and the Starbucks free drink promo. Seems like a way to get all warm and fuzzy, like you’re actually helping the Earth by driving to Bucks for a free cup o’joe. It’s a good gimmick, but little more than that.