Reduce Waste At your Coffee Shop

In America we love our coffee and because of the abundance of coffee shops we can now pick up some quality blends and try many exciting variations without the need to purchase a complicated espresso machine or milk steamer, coffee bean grinder or tea infuser.

Although these Coffee shops are great for our coffee habits, there is a large cost associated with our visits. Beside the obvious financial cost of some of the fancier named coffee concoctions there is a very large environmental cost.

Coffee shops generally serve their brew in hard to recycle paper cups. A good estimate is that Americans throw away 18 billion paper cups every year. Paper and cardboard make up over 40% of the solid waste buried in North American landfills. Of that 40%, a disproportionate amount, is attributable to disposable coffee cups. Add to this waste the plastic lids and straws and cardboard sleeves that many of us use on our paper coffee cups whether we need them or not.

Luckily there are some very easy ways in which we can reduce our waste at coffee shops.
The best way to reduce this waste is to get a reusable mug or travel mug. Travel mugs tend to be better because they come with a lid in case you want to take them in the car and avoid spills and because they are insulated, which means your coffee will stay hot longer. Here are a few tips for using your reusable mug at the coffee shop:

1. Create a personalized travel mug that you will really like. Adding photographs and your name to your travel mug makes it stand out and you will want to use it more often.
2. Bring your Travel Mug with you. It will be of no use if you leave it at home.
3. Know how much liquid your mug can hold. At most coffee shops 12oz. is a Tall or Small, 16oz. is Grande or Medium and 20oz. is a Venti or Large.
4. Order the size drink you want that will fit in your mug. Sometimes you can get lucky and the barrista will fill up your 16oz. mug even if you only ordered a small or tall.
5. Order your drink type specifically and make sure that the barrista does not use a paper cup to write the order on. If you regularly enjoy the same drink get a reusable mug that describes your specific drink order on it and then point your barrista to this description.
6. Unscrew the top of the travel mug before handing your mug over. Keep the lid with you and replace it once you get your drink back.
7. Add your milk and sugar to your cup first before handing it over to the barrista. In this way you will eliminate the waste caused by spilling, if you add these later to an already full mug.
8. Ask the barrista what discount they offer for bringing in your own mug. Some coffee shops offer discounts as high as 30%. Don’t make this your reason for bringing in a reusable mug, just be pleased with yourself for helping to reduce the waste.

If you forget to bring in your travel mug then there are still a number of ways you can reduce waste during your coffee shop visit.

1. If you intend to sit in the coffee shop and enjoy your drink, you do not need a plastic lid. If you do need to take your coffee on the go then hopefully next time you will remember your reusable travel mug.
2. If you should spill any coffee on the counter top, do not use napkins to wipe it up. Ask the barrista for a rag to wipe up the spill.
3. The cardboard collar, meant for hot drinks, can also add to the waste. If you do not need one then do not take one.

Some estimates suggest that if we all use reusable mugs at one of the large chain coffee shops instead of their paper cups we would save more than 1 million tons of wood, 2 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4 billion gallons of water every year. That’s the equivalent carbon dioxide reduction of keeping almost 800 000 cars off the road for at least 3 days.

So get a travel mug and persuade everyone you know to do the same. Make a difference, reduce the waste, get some discounts at coffee shops and feel good about yourself. Make the switch to a reusable travel mug today.

Contact us at support@gogreenmug.com or 714-345-1101, to personalize a mug or mugs for yourself or your business.

Earth Day Events and Photos

Today we come to the end of 2 weeks of fun environmental activities that we took part in for Earth Day celebrations. We have put together an assortment of some of the photographs from the events we attended.

We hope you had the chance to do your bit in the last two weeks. Of course you know that these last two weeks should not be the end of your environmental activities. Please join us in the coming weeks for more activities. We will post them in advance on this blog. We will be celebrating earth and the environment every day, so please join us when you can or tell us about what you are doing and how we can join you.

Go Green Mug have decided to extend our Earth Day discount of 20% off, until the end of April. So if you do not use a travel mug at coffee shops to cut down on your paper and polystyrene cup waste, then go to http://www.gogreenmug.com and personalize a travel mug with names and quotes and anything else you want. Add a photograph too. Use the coupon code: svplntmg at checkout to get your 20% off.

OK, we promised some photographs, so here they are:

On Saturday 18 April, we had a fantastic day in Southern California and took to the beach in Huntington Beach for a bit of surfing and sun. Unfortunately we have no pics from the day, but we got to enjoy the ocean and even lend a hand in a beach cleanup.

On Sunday April 19 we were at the Earth Day Celebrations at the Rainbow Disposal Center (on Nichols St.) in Huntington Beach and at The Lab and The Camp (the anti-mall) in Costa Mesa (on Bristol). We had the chance to see some neat environmental products and enjoy bites from locally grown organic food stores. Below is a pic of some wall art at The Lab.

On Friday 24 April we helped at a beach clean up at Big Corona beach in Corona Del Mar. Once again finding lots of small plastic pieces, cigarette butts and polystyrene all over the beach.
Saturday 25 April we took to the trails in Laguna Canyon and enjoyed another great day in Southern California. The trails seemed to be busier than usual as many bikers and hikers celebrated Earth Day this weekend.

Finally on Sunday 26 April (today) we were at the Muth Interpretive Center in the Newport Beach back bay to enjoy an Earth Day celebration complete with tarantulas, large iguanas and birds of prey. Here is Dennis helping out at the Surfrider Foundation exhibit.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Save Water Now

Last week, as I was reading through my issue of The National Wildlife Federations magazine, I came across an article in which they interviewed Doug Kent about creating a carbon neutral, sustainable garden. In 2008, Doug was involved at the 19th Annual Southern California Spring Garden show, where he designed and built an "Ocean Friendly" garden and won Best Theme Presentation at the show. I volunteered with Doug for a day in 2008 in helping to setup the garden. The garden included innovative methods of reducing water runoff from the garden. It did this using native Southern California plants with low water requirements and landscape features to contain the water in the garden, instead of allowing it to run off into the street and watershed. This garden therefore required less water consumption.

California is currently in its third year of drought. Southern California gets most of its water supply from the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountain snow packs during the dry seasons of spring and summer. Rising temperatures and increased rainfall, due to global warming, may lead to a large reduction in the snow pack and therefore an even bigger water shortage for Southern California.

If CO2 emissions continue at their current level (fired by burning coal, oil, gas and single use products), temperatures are likely to rise. Increased temperatures may bring increased rain fall to Southern California during the winter but will result in dryer summers and a drastic reduction in the snow pack. This would pose a difficult problem for water managers in storing winter rainfall, reduce power production through hydroelectrics, and of course reduce snow recreation activities.

We therefore need to start reducing waste now. We have already discussed numerous ways to reduce waste. Here are 7 more ways we can reduce water waste inside our houses and how much water they can save.

1. Fix leaky faucets. This can save up to 20 gallons per day per leak.
2. Only wash clothing when you have a full load. This will save up to 20 gallons per wash.
3. Only use the dishwasher with a full load. This will save up to 4.5 gallons per load.
4. Do not let the water run when you are rinsing dishes or brushing your teeth. This can save up to 2.5 gallons per minute.
5. Bath less often and instead take showers. When taking a bath, save up to 25 gallons by only making the tub half full.
6. Shower with a friend or shorten the time you spend in the shower. Every minute less you spend in the shower can save 2.5 gallons.
7. Fix leaky toilets. This can save as much as 50 gallons a day per toilet. If your toilets are old you can also upgrade to a high efficiency toilet and look out for the rebates from the water companies.

Spring is almost here and we are looking forward to a good period of activity. The team at GoGreenMug will be involved with Earth Day on April 22 and International Surfing Day on July 21 as well as other environmental activities. With Earth Day just over 2 weeks away we are offering a 20% discount at http://www.gogreenmug.com to promote reducing waste at coffee shops, by using less disposable coffee cups. Get yourself a reusable mug, personalize it with your name, drink order and photograph and use it whenever you visit a coffee shop.

The coupon will also apply to gift certificates, so gift your friend a mug too.
Enter the Coupon Code: svplntmg at checkout.

Storing Solar, Wind and Wave Power

We have been hearing about the benefits and potential revolution that will come about when we commit to using Solar, Wind, Wave and other sustainable natural energies. We have heard how we will be able to give up on our fossil fuel habit, reduce our carbon emissions and hopefully slow down or reverse the effects of global warming.

We, of course, are big supporters of these sustainable energy sources and are excitedly anticipating some big changes now that President Obama has made environmental sources of energy an integral part of the 2009 Economic Stimulus Package and his federal budget. For now, although we know of a few homes and companies that use solar energy or wind turbines for power, we are not quite in a position that all of us can swear off those fossil fuels.

The problem is storage. Electricity cannot be stored, it can only be transformed into a different type of energy. Solar, wind, and other natural environmentally generated sources of energy are not consistent. The Sun does not always shine all day and never at night, the wind does not blow at a high enough speed all day or night either. This would mean that we may encounter electricity fluctuations as the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind dies down. Therefore, this type of energy needs to be stored before it is transformed into electricity that must be delivered. Fossil fuels such as coal and oil have that storage advantage. The coal or oil can be kept in its natural state before being burned to create the electricity.

There are a few costly ways in which Solar, Wind and other such energies can be stored - large batteries, fuel cells and heat storage. Batteries are familiar to all of us. We all know that the larger the battery, the more power it can store but this also makes it more expensive. In fact, battery technology really has not advanced much since it was invented, mostly because fossil fuels became much cheaper to use. Electric cars in particular have struggled because the cost of the battery is high and it takes a long time to charge and delivers limited mileage. This makes it almost impossible for the electric car to compete against a gas engine that can offer longer mileage and be filled up in minutes.

The other methods of energy storage may work out a lot better. Heat storage makes a lot of sense for Solar energy. The sun can heat a pipe full of water and create steam which is then much easier to store before it is converted into electricity.

President Obama's plans give encouragement to all forms of energy storage. He has even budgeted specifically for scientific research into battery technology. Once specific technologies become essential and funded, we have seen how quickly they can develop. Media (movies, photographs..) storage has encouraged hard drive manufacturers' to quickly increase hard disk storage space and retrieval speeds. Every year, larger and larger storage disks are built, while the size of the drive and the costs remain the same, or in some cases decrease.

Energy storage has also become an essential technology as we try to move away from using fossil fuels, and therefore we hope to see the same exponential technological developments and cost effectiveness here that we have seen in other technological fields.

Next weekend (Saturday) the Go Green Mug team http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and friends will be competing in the 2ND Annual Rockwater event hosted by Surfrider Newport Beach. The event is planned to raise awareness of the water shed. The water shed is the path water takes from our streets and gutters to the ocean outlet. Anything we throw out on the streets will therefore end up in the ocean. We will talk more about the Rockwater race in next week's blog. But if you want to come out and support us we will be running, walking, biking, and skateboarding from the Riverside/Orange county county line to the the Santa Ana river mouth at the border of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

We have not reported on any of our coffee shop visits for a few weeks now, because we think you may be bored hearing about our adventures. So why don't you let us know about your coffee shop visit and what discount they gave you for bringing in a mug. We will send a free GoGreenMug T-shirt for the best message, with a photograph, that we receive. We will publish the photograph and details in the next blog. Send your message to support@gogreenmug.com.

Have a great week and remember to reduce your waste and use your reusable mug.

Butts on our Beaches

Does anyone really care to see your butts on our beaches?

We are of course referring to cigarette butts. This Saturday we once again joined Surfrider Newport Beach Chapter at their regular Huntington beach clean up ( 4Th Saturday morning of every month from 8-12). We picked up many polystyrene coffee cups and broken plastic lids, just as we did last month. This month however we were made aware of the literally thousands of cigarette butts on the beach. So many that we could hardly make a dent ourselves in an hour picking them up.

Many of the beaches in California are designated Smoke-Free beaches. You can find a list of all smoke-free beaches on the Earth Resources Foundation Website. Huntington Beach (the site of the beach clean up) is on this list and we did not expect to find all these butts. Of course recent rains in Southern California have meant that our streets and gutters have been cleared out and the water has flowed down to the ocean via the watershed, bringing with it the disposed of butts and much more.

Most cigarette butts are made from cellulose acetate and are not biodegradable, only breaking apart over a long period of time, depending on conditions. This time frame can be up to 15 years. The butts therefore cause an unsightly environmental problem for many years before they break up.

The butts are also the filters for the cigarettes themselves and therefore contain the left over chemicals from the cigarette. Once they come into contact with water, the butts begin leaching these chemicals, which include cadmium, lead, formaldehyde and arsenic into the water. The butts make their way down through the watershed and end up polluting our oceans and inside the intestines and stomachs of fish, whales, dolphins, birds and the other numerous marine animals.

If you are a smoker, understand that your cigarette butts do not biodegrade and only break apart over a long period of time. They will cause numerous environmental problems. So hold on to your butts. Instead of throwing your butt out on the street or into the gutter, pick up a BUTTsOUT personal ashtray, check out http://www.buttsout.net/buttsout , or you can get them at one of the Surfrider beach cleanups.

For us non smokers, let your smoking friends know that their butts end up on our beaches and tell them what they can do about it. Join in at beach cleanups and don't be afraid to pick up the butts. At most beach cleanups gloves are supplied, so there is no need to touch them with your hands.

One way you can help reduce this type of waste on the beaches is to send a message to your State Assemblyperson and Senator through Surfrider Foundation's Action Network: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/hotyb?rk=D7s41uFqBOJeE

Last week Dudley and Melanie were on the Island of Tonga which is in the South Pacific. This is a small country made up of many coral islands. There are no rivers or lakes on the main island of Tongatapu and the only fresh water is rain water, which is collected and stored. On small islands such as these sustainability is very important to a healthy human population. All items must be reused as much as possible. While on the island we visited a local coffee shop to sample the Tongan brew. There are no disposable coffee cups sold here, so we happily enjoyed our drinks in the glass mugs they provided.

Of course there is no reason why we as Americans and Canadians cannot do the same as the Tongans and reuse our coffee mugs and many other things too. Sustainability is important for all countries. We all need to reduce our impact on the environment in whatever way we can.

Start with your coffee mug. Remember to always bring your own when you visit a coffee shop. If you would like to create a personalized coffee mug, you can go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and pick one up there. And if you enjoy a smoke with your cup of coffee, remember to hold onto your butts when you are done with the cigarette.

Have a great week.

What is in the 2009 Economic Stimulus Package for the Environment

Congress voted on President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 last week.

Because of President Obama's commitment to the environment, that he expressed during his presidential campaign and has reiterated since he became president, we hoped that this new economic stimulus package would include incentives for Americans to reduce their waste, improve energy efficiency and make use of renewable energy.

At GoGreenMug we have added our voice to the call for green incentives in the stimulus package. We have signed petitions at National Wildlife Federation and Surfrider as well as adding our photo to CALPIRG's appeal to Congress to remember Global Warming in the stimulus package (see last weeks blog).


So just what is in the Economic Stimulus Package for the environment? We reviewed the bill, passed in the Senate on February 10, to get an idea of what to expect. You can see a copy of it at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1/text .

Here are some of the environmental highlights:

• Incentives for residential and commercial buildings to meet or exceed specified energy conservation standards. - $14 billion
• Grants for the manufacture of advanced battery systems and vehicle batteries that are produced in the United States, including lithium ion batteries and hybrid electrical systems. - $2 billion.
• Energy-Efficient Federal Motor Vehicle Fleet Procurement, acquiring federal motor vehicles with higher fuel economy $300 million.
• Investment in electricity delivery and energy reliability (a smart grid) to enable the use of renewable forms of energy - $4.5 billion
• Improve power line capacity and reliability- $6.5 billion.
• Projects that demonstrate carbon capture from industrial sources - $1.5 billion.
• Conservation and renewable resources programs - $15 billion.
• Grants for the operation of the National Park System and public land- $3 billion.
• Public Transportation - Investment to add train routes and bus lines - $8.4 billion.
• Defense nuclear waste environmental cleanup and conservation and renewable resource programs - $6.4 billion
• Tax credits for renewable energy development, home efficiency upgrades and the creation of renewable energy and conservation bonds - About $20 billion.

Considering the total for the stimulus package is likely to be around $789 billion, the approximately $80 billion set aside for environmental policies seems a substantial investment (about 10%). Is it enough to head off the possibly devastating challenge of global warming and destruction and change the way Americans live and do business. It is very important that environmental issues are addressed and that incentives are created for Americans to reduce waste and conserve our environment.

Most of us though will never get to see a stimulus investment check even if more money were made available, however we can continue to reduce our waste and energy consumption without this incentive. We can also continue to appeal to President Obama and congress to offer forceful incentives for the industries that need a prod, such as the oil companies, motor vehicle manufacturers and carbon dioxide belching manufacturing companies.

This week we have a pic from some regular Starbucks customers at their local coffee shop in Orange County. Sarah and Tamarra holding their GoGreenMugs with Raoul and Starbucks barrista, Ari. They commented that they love their personalized GoGreenMugs and their Starbucks sometimes offers more than the company policy 10 cents discount when they bring in their own mug. Thanks for the pic guys.
You too can get your pic on our blog. Take your GoGreenMug into your local coffee shop and ask for a discount. Let us know what discount you got and what you like about your local coffee shop and include a pic if you want. You can leave a comment or email us at support@gogreenmug.com .

Sign up to 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.

College Activism

I (Dudley) was studying at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1990's. Mandela had been released and the first democratic elections for all of South Africa's citizens was yet to take place. This was a time of serious political turmoil in South Africa and as liberal students, many of us attended rallies and protests, excited to be part of history.

Many people will also remember or have read about the political activism of the 1960's in America. Civil rights, ban the bomb, free love. Much of this activism took place on college campuses with enlightened students and academics leading the way.

We believe that reducing waste is a cause and a political one. Without government support it will be very difficult to make the changes we need to reduce waste and thereby stabilize our environment. Last week in a discussion on his environmental policies, President Obama said "Year after year, decade after decade, we've chosen delay over decisive action. Rigid ideology has overruled sound science. Special interests have overshadowed common sense. Rhetoric has not led to the hard work needed to achieve results. Our leaders raise their voices each time there is a spike in gas prices, only to grow quiet when the price falls at the pump."

If we do not put pressure on our political leaders they may continue to delay to take action.

Once again enlightened student activists will likely take the lead in this important cause. This week we attended a presentation on Global Warming at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Members of CALPIRG (California Student Public Interest Research Group) organized posters and speakers. They discussed their plans for on campus environmental programs. These included a bike share program, where students will be able to check out bikes on campus; a Metro use program that will lay out bus routes on the OC and LA Metro to numerous student hangouts, including clubs and restaurants; a recycling program and a community activity program. Members of CALPIRG were also taking photographs of students and visitors with a sign reminding President Obama and Congress to include environmental causes and effective actions that will reduce global warming in the $850 billion bailout plan.

We also met and spoke with Christine Dubois Royal from CALPIRG and Dr. Lori Greene from the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California. Dr. Greene introduced us to a new program at the School of Physical Sciences with a focus on improving efficiency and storage of Solar Energy.

We were pleased to meet up with these enthusiastic activists at UCI and are looking forward to finding out more about their programs.

As you know our cause is to reduce the waste in Coffee Shops by using a reusable mug.

Dennis went to Kelly's Coffee & Fudge, in Buena Park, CA. They did not offer a discount for bringing in his mug. The owner said he doesn't see more than 2-3 people/month bringing their own mug in, and he wasn't even aware of his own franchise's move to become greener by switching the type of cups they use. In fact he did not realize that a sign outside promoted the new greener cups. The owner then used a paper cup to make the drink, then poured it into the mug; he explained he had to do this because the cup had lines showing him how much of each ingredient to put in. This location does not seem very interested in making much of an effort to help the environment (or even to save themselves some money on disposable cups).

Unfortunately this is an all too familiar experience at coffee shops. You do have the right to choose though. Ask the barrista to make your drink without using the paper cup for measurements. If he refuses, then get your money back and go to another coffee shop that will use your mug. Remember our purpose is to reduce the waste of coffee cups, so walking away will make the coffee shop owner think twice about their environmental policy.

Remember to take your reusable travel mug into all the coffee shops you visit and ask them for a discount. Let us know where you went and the discount offered. If you can get a pic then please send it to us at support@gogreenmug.com and we will post it in next weeks blog. Alternatively just comment on the blog and tell us about your visit.

Join our cause on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?m=fa5edc14&recruiter_id=35111682 or on the Starbucks V2V at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug

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 you can get free shipping and 15% off with the coupon code: luvday until Valentines Day February 14th, for your personalized re-usable travel mug. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Deforestation and Coffee Cups

How many trees are cut down every year to create single use disposable coffee cups?


According to Sustainability Is Sexy more than 6.5 million trees were cut down in 2006 to create the 16 billion paper cups thrown away. Coffee shop paper cups are not made from recycled paper because of FDA regulation and the fact that recycled paper is not strong enough to hold the liquid and prevent hot coffee leaks and spills. Therefore most paper cups are made from 100% virgin paperwood.


Deforestation is the process by which trees in a forest are cut down. The reasons for deforestation are numerous, including logging (to make paper products), increasing farmland, mining and population expansion. This deforestion creates wastelands and deserts, but in our opinion there is a far more environmentally important result.

Trees are like Carbon Dioxide sponges. They remove carbon from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis and release small amounts of Oxygen back into the atmosphere. Only an actively growing tree can perform this function. The Carbon absorbed by the trees is also compacted into the soil where after millions of years it creates the fossil fuels we use abundantly today. Cutting down trees, exposes this soil and allows this carbon stored in the soil to be realeased back into the atmosphere.


Therefore by chopping down trees we remove the planets natural Carbon Dioxide filter and also release more carbon into the atmosphere from the soil. And as we all know increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a major cause of our global warming environmental problem.



To add to this increased carbon dioxide from deforestation, the creation and then disposable of all these coffee cups, creates even more carbon dioxide. Creating the paper requires large machines that belch out carbon dioxide and burning of non -recycleable used coffee cups also increases carbon emmissions.

Of course planting trees is an excellent way to reduce some of the damage caused by deforestation, but we must also commit to reducing our waste and to reusing our own personal coffee mugs.

With all this in mind I took my Go Green Mug to Seattles Best coffee shop in the Borders bookshop in the District in Tustin, CA. Seattles Best offered me a 10 cent discount for using my reusable mug and as I intended to read a magazine at the shop I was pleased that once again the barrista filled up my 16 oz. mug and I only paid for a small 12 oz.

Remember to take your reusable travel mug into all the coffee shops you visit and ask them for a discount. Let us know where you went and the discount offered. If you can get a pic then please send it to us at support@gogreenmug.com and we will post it in next weeks blog. Alternatively just comment on the blog and tell us about your visit.

Also if you have not done it already join our cause on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?m=fa5edc14&recruiter_id=35111682 or on the Starbucks V2V at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug

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 you can get free shipping and a 15% discount with the coupon code: luvday until Valentines Day February 14th for your personalized re-usable travel mug. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.