Beach CleanUps

Congratulations President Obama! Since he became president on Tuesday, he has got off to a flying start. Although he spoke about his energy and environmental policies briefly in his inaugural address, this has obviously not been part of his initial actions because of the deep economic recession.

However we have noted that his team have made modifications to http://www.whitehouse.gov/ where you can find his new environmental policies, in which he continues to commit to a greener future.

At GoGreenMug we too have really just got started. Last week we started 2 action campaigns. Thank you to all who have joined our causes at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342 on Facebook and at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug . Remember to use a reusable mug whenever you visit a coffee shop, ask for a discount and let us know about it as a comment or by sending us an email at support@gogreenmug.com .

This week we also took up Obama's call to public action and took part in 2 beach clean ups in Huntington Beach. The first was organized by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust working with the City of Huntington Beach, CA on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and saw a large turnout. Many of the larger pieces of trash picked up that day were polystyrene and paper cups from coffee shops, as well as many pieces of plastic from the plastic lids supplied at coffee shops.

The second beach cleanup we did was with Surfrider Foundation Newport Beach chapter http://surfridernb.com/ This event takes place on the 4th Saturday of every month, so please join us if you are in the area. Once again there was lots of evidence of polystyrene coffee cups and plastic lids. The 3 photographs shown above left are great examples of how obvious it is that many coffee cups end up on our beaches. Although some of them are simply left on the beach, most of this difficult to recycle waste is washed down to our beaches via the watershed. The watershed is the drainage area into a river and in much of the USA this watershed picks up waste from our streets as it drains to the river which then drains to the ocean. The best way to reduce this waste on our beaches is to reuse, reduce and recycle everything we can.
In these pics you can see some of the trash that was collected. Plastic and polystyrene photodegrade and thereby creates smaller and smaller pieces as it breaks down. Eventually these small pieces enter the food chain of smaller birds, fish and animals, causing them harm.

These 3 bag fulls were collected by 3 of us in an hour of clean up.

This week Jane also took her mug to Tropicana Bakery as part of our Facebook cause. Here are Jane's comments and picture: "Today I visited Tropicana

Bakery and Cuban Cafe in Downey, California. I learned that they do not offer a discount for bringing in your own mug. However, they seemed very receptive to the idea and it sounds like they have already made efforts to become greener in the new year by switching from using Styrofoam to paper cups. I have been to this bakery often. Their food and coffee are some of the best in Southern California and the place is always packed. It would be great if they encouraged their customers to bring in their own mugs and helped to reduce the waste."

We hope Tropicana Bakery and Cuban Cafe follow up on their attempts to reduce waste and we wish them luck.

Please let us know about any of the places you visit.

As we are asking coffee shops to show their commitment by giving larger discounts we have decided to show our commitment at GoGreenMug.com too by offering free shipping on all orders through February 14th to encourage everyone to get their own personalized mugs to take into coffee shop.

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Obama Style Community Action

On Tuesday 20 January, 2009 Barrack Obama will become the new President of the USA. In regard to the government's environmental policy we believe that his presidency will benefit and promote environmental causes. If you are interested in finding out more about President Obama's Environmental and Energy plan then go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy .

We are particularly pleased that his plan includes a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, to make federal buildings more energy efficient and to set high standards for clean air and water. President Obama's plans, definitely align with our goals at Go Green Mug. We therefore hope and expect that he will follow through on his plans with little delay after his inauguration.

President Obama's election campaign was also a great example of community action. He managed to raise an estimated $650 million. Most of which came from small donations. He also managed with his grass roots efforts to get many first time voters registered and voting.

Community action also made a difference in the Save Trestles campaign. More than 3000 people showed up at each of the public hearings, to protest the proposed Toll Road through the San Mateo Creek and San Onofre State Park. As we reported in our first blog, the Federal Government recently agreed with the California Coastal Commission in declaring the Toll Road illegal. Community action once again won out.

With these community victories in mind, we believe that it is through community action that we can get closer to one of our goals. If you have followed this blog regularly, you will know that we report on some of our coffee shop visits. We let you know what coffee shops were visited that week and what discount was offered. Our primary goal at Go Green Mug is to reduce the waste in whatever way we can. As coffee and tea drinkers we see a focused goal of reducing the number of paper cups being thrown out at coffee shops, by encouraging people to bring their own mug into the shop.

Coffee shops have their role to play too. If they offer large discounts to customers bringing in their own mugs then they will incentivize more customers to bring in their own mugs. We all benefit - less waste, larger discounts, and for the coffee shop lower expenses for all their cups and plastic lids as well as a reputation for wanting to reduce the waste.

We have created a community action on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?recruiter_id=35111682 as well as at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug on the Starbucks V2V. Please sign up to participate in these actions and we can encourage Starbucks and other large coffee chains to increase their standard 10 cent discount. As part of this action take your own mug into a coffee shop and ask for a discount and then report the experience and the discount to us either as a comment, on this blog or via email at support@gogreenmug.com . Please add a photograph if you would like and we will post the best one each week on this blog. We will keep a list of all the coffee shops and their discounts and in this way encourage the coffee shops to do more to reduce waste for all of us who are committed to bringing in our own mugs every time we visit a coffee shop.

This week we visited Peet's Coffee shop in the Bella Terra center in Huntington Beach. They also offered a standard 10cent discount, which is just more than a 3% discount on the price of the drinks. Our picture this week is from Melanie, she was at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, who offered the standard 10 cent discount. Not really a great commitment to reducing waste from either of these 2 large coffee shop chains.

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Easy Environmental Activism

We started this blog to motivate us to get out and make a difference in whatever way we can and so that we could be held accountable for our environmental actions.
As we are only 11 days into 2009 , we do not have a long list of environmental action accomplishments to talk about this year, but we hope to achieve many more during the year.
Here are some of the things we have done so far. We hope that you read this list and realize that you can do many of the same actions with little effort. Here is our list:
We have begun writing this blog and telling you about some of the causes we believe in and actions we are taking, so that we hold ourselves accountable for our actions.
We take our GoGreenMug.com travel mugs every time we visit a coffee shop. We never use a paper cup, plastic lid or cardboard cup holder offered at any coffee shop.
We have signed the Surfrider Foundation's "Rise Above Plastics Pledge". You can sign this too at http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/rap_pledge
We have signed the Facebook causes petition "Our Coasts are at Risk" which will be sent to President Obama to ask him and the congress to protect our coasts from offshore drilling. If you have a Facebook account you can sign this petition at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/23?m=2b9e3807&recruiter_id=35111682
We have committed to doing at least one beach cleanup every month in 2009. Beach cleanups are easy to find and get involved with as they are organized by numerous environmental organizations. If you want to get out there and join in a beach cleanup then check out: http://www.beachcleanup.org/ or http://www.blueoceansociety.org/cleanup.htm or http://www.healthebay.org/volunteer/htbcleanup/default.asp or of course Surfrider Foundation whose different chapters do beach cleanups at beaches all over the world.


This week Dennis and Dudley visited the coffee shop/bakery 85 degrees C in the Diamond Jubilee center in Irvine. We were informed that they had some really different and exciting teas to try. This was an excellent tip and we tried some of their specialities, which we highly recommend as well as their baked goods.
Although the teas were great, we were very disappointed to find another coffee shop that did not offer a discount for bringing in our own mugs. We would not use the excuse of no discount to leave our mugs at home and get our drinks in a paper cup. We still enjoy the satisfaction of knowing we did not add to the waste.
There seem to be a number of coffee shops that do not incentivize their customers to reduce waste. We hope that we can influence their decision by telling you about them and creating a list from all around the US and Canada. Please tell us about any coffee shops you visit and what, if any discount they offered. Write comments on this blog or send us an email at support@gogreenmug.com and attach a photo for us to post. If we can create a large enough list and following, we think we will be able to encourage more coffee shops to offer better discounts for anyone helping to reduce the waste!
Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Greening the new year

Welcome to the Go Green Mug Blog in 2009. As we launched in the middle of December 2008, this year is truly a fresh start for us. Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polysteyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. So go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009.

In the last 2 weeks I have spoken to many friends and family and told them about our project Go Green Mug and our efforts to get Americans to re-use mugs and get involved with helping to reduce waste. Most of these people were very excited and wanted to do all they could, such as taking their mugs whenever they go to a coffee shop or helping at local beach clean-ups. However one friend suggested it really was not worth it. As long as people in places like China and India need to continue to grow and develop their economies they will continue to increase their waste, so is re-using a mug at a coffee shop in the USA really going to make a difference?

Reducing waste certainly does seem like an impossible problem, but lets look at some statistics. According to the US Enviromental Protection Agency - U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 254 million tons of solid waste in 2007, which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day. Re-using and Recycling reduces the emission of many greenhouse gases and water pollutants, saves energy, supplies valuable raw materials to industry, creates jobs, stimulates the development of greener technologies, conserves resources for our children's future, and reduces the need for new landfills and combustors. Recycling helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions that affect global climate. In 2007, the national recycling rate was 33.4 percent (85 million tons recycled) and this is expected to be higher in 2008.

33.4% is therefore only 1/3 of what we can do to re-use and recycle. Which leaves us lots of room to do something! There are also numerous other ways to reduce waste that cause carbon dioxide emmisions, deforestation or pollution of our beaches and oceans. As Americans we should be doing as much as we can ourselves. We can start by changing our habits - reduce our consumption where we can, re-use all items that we can and recycle everything that is possible to recycle. Our friends around the world are all aware of the global waste problem, even as they strive to achieve economic success. Our success in reducing waste will encourage them to do the same. If we do our best we can promote our actions and encourage other people to do whatever they can to reduce their waste.

So as 2009 begins, we should all resolve to ace that recycling statistic. Attempt to re-use or recycle 100% of all your waste products!
You can also try a number of other steps to help reduce waste:

1. Donate to an environmental charity of your choice.
2. Volunteer at one of the many active environmental organizations. Activities may include beach cleanups, teaching at schools and going to public hearings.
3. Reuse your plastic or paper bags at the grocery stores (or even better use a reusable canvas bag).
4. Turn off the lights and unplug electrical devices when you no longer need them.
5. Change all your light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent light bulbs. This will save you money in the long run by reducing your electricity bill.
6. Pay your bills online and sign up for electronic statements so that paper bills and envelopes do not need to be sent out.
7. Drive less! - Take public transportation, carpool, bike or walk.
8. Recycle everything you can and re-use everything else.
9. Buy from coffee houses that patronize sustainable coffee bean growth farms.
10. Buy a GoGreenMug for yourself and one for each of your coffee and tea drinking friends.
    

Check out the US EPA's What you Can Do site for more suggestions and details.
Lastly as promised we will continue to list some of the coffee shops that we visited and let you know what discounts they offer when you bring your own re-usable mug. As the GoGreenMug team are all in Southern California, please help us to evaluate more coffee shops by taking your mug in and asking for a discount. Then send us a comment or an email at support@gogreenmug.com to let us know where you went and the discount you were offered and attach a photograph of yourself and your mug and we will post it on this blog.

This week we visited Gloria Jean's in the Westminister mall. The barrista said the owner had recently restricted discounts for bringing in your own mug. In the end though he filled up my 16 oz mug (regular) and charged me for a small (12 0z). Well that sort of counts as a discount. I always ask for small and usually get charged for small, even though the mug itself holds a medium sized drink.