I am definitely guilty of this on way too many occasions, so I have made a huge effort lately to always bring my travel mug to any coffee shop when I order to go. These days you can find some very pretty travel mugs like these:
Hand painted travel mugs by Yevgenia
Another great tip, one we rarely think about I think, is overusing napkins or plastic utensils when we order to-go. These things are way to easy to grab but are such a huge waste especially when you have metal utensils at home that you can easily carry with you in your bag or keep at the office.
The bigger culprit I think are the paper napkins! They get picked up, used or even unused and thrown away faster then you can blink an eye, it's unfortunate really.
Try this instead ...
USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN
During an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.
Other create options:
- keep a couple of clothe towels or napkins in your bag to use and reuse; all it takes is a good wash or rinse and it is good again for next use.
- Eat in! It's always the healthiest way to go anyway and cleaning up after will be less wasteful.
- Slow down! Eating is not a race, take your time eating and chances are you'll make less mess and need less clean up after
Any other ideas? Would love to hear them, please leave a comment, question or post idea - would love to hear from you!