Jesus doesn't love you more if you bring your own mug (but you should do it anyway)

I'm a big waster.

Ask anyone who rode in my car last semester, and they'll tell you that they've never seen so many half-drunk plastic water bottles in their life. And being an officer in the University "Green" club, and a good-intentioned failing environmentalist, I struggle over issues like this. It's like I will buy the t-shirt because it says GREEN on it -- and totally ignore the fact that this shirt has a size-14 carbon footprint, was made in China by children in sweatshops, and is printed on the farthest thing from fair-trade organic cotton..... The price of being cool and trendy, I guess.

I wasn't even quite sure what a carbon footprint was, to be honest: just that it had something to do with carbon emissions. I wikied it, though, and learned today that a carbon footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product" -- easy enough, in this case, the emissions caused by a cup or bag.

I calculated my carbon footprint at carbonfootprint.com and discovered that I emit approximately 10.65 tons of carbon emissions annually -- doing things like driving my little beat-up Sedan and buying things that are "nicely packaged." I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it certainly sounds like a lot: 10 tons is a lot of air. But apparently, I'm doing about twice as well as the average American, who makes about 20 tons.

*Pat on the back!*
Now, dealing with coffee cups. According to CarbonRally.com, the footprint of a single medium-sized (ahem, grande!) coffee cup is 0.25 pounds of GHG.

"That includes both the CO2 released when fossil fuels are burned to create the energy needed to manufacture the paper in the coffee cup and then manufacture the coffee cup itself. It also includes the energy used to transport the cups from the factory to your local coffee shop." - CarbonRally.com

So, busting out the old math skills, that means if I buy a paper.......errrrr......a plastic polyethylene terephthalate-coated paper......cup of coffee once every day for a year (which I drink enough Americano to justify), I generate a good 91.25 lbs of breathable, huggable, loveable emissions that coat the earth like varnish and keep it warm, like a well-padded Andrews sweater.

Well, what's another 100 pounds to add to my 10,000+ pounds per year habits, you ask? I don't actually know. Especially considering this study done at the University of Victoria that found that reusable cups take, of course, more energy to produce than paper cups--and that it would take 1000 or more uses of the reusable cup to make up for this energy loss. I'm not sure how accurate that is....but the thing is: a year's worth of ceramic-mugging = 365 less paper cups in the dump. And I'd say that's well-worth the mug-hauling if all of us did our part....as long as we don't buy lots and lots of mugs every year.

And perhaps it would do good to say that our attitudes are probably the biggest obstacle in accomplishing this. It's kind of clunky to B.Y.O.M. --Bring Your Own Mug-- and whip it out at the Starbucks counter, even for the ten-cent discount.

"Two dollars," says the Barista, as she reaches to mark a paper cup....

"NO!!!!" I shout. "NOOOO!!! DON'T ADD 0.25 POUNDS OF GHG INTO THE AIR WITH MY MONEY!!!"

As I bang my reusable, slightly dusty, three-year-old mug on the counter. "USE THIS!!!"

It's awkward like that. I feel like it's not worth the effort sometimes. After all, are you really killing baby orcas or polar bears by using paper? Are you going to endorse the felling of trees in rainforests by buying a latte? The answer is: no, probably not.

And, in all cheesy WWJD fashion, would Jesus drink out of a ceramic cup? Probably, if he had one. But I don't think that he would take your paper cup and pour hot coffee in your lap if you happened to not recycle it. He's not going to be like, "Why don't you recycle, you insensitive @#$%?!" I think he's much more easy going than that. He'd most likely plant a coffee tree outside, and then sit under it and make reusable mug cozys.....at least that's what I'd envision.

So, in conclusion, though it may be awkward and inconvenient.......sticking that washable, reusable thermos in your purse (or man-bag) should do the world a little good at about 1,000 or so uses. And maybe the issue shouldn't be so much about how we use our materials, but why we use them....and figure out creative solutions to problems that are much more rooted in our identity and security as human people than in our kilowatt numbers and consumption usage. After all, why do we buy Starbucks? Why do we buy anything? Why are we so consumed with buying things that we have totally trashed the earth with garbage? These issues are more spiritual and psychological than anything else. I would like to see someone start at the heart of the issue....rather than take the failed New Year's Resolution approach, "Mug more, and paper less."