Spring Time is Here!... I think.

ugh....shwaaaat???

Two days ago marked the very first day of Spring 2012, ushering in the season of awakening, gardening, DIY projects, and a general Go Green mentality.  Apparently, the local weatherman apparently missed the memo because today I woke up to two inches of fresh snow on my mini-lawn.  Here in Spokane, the locals always count on one last attempt by Old Man Winter around this time before the season actually turns in for the year.  I sure hope so because I am not one of those people who get all excited for snow... or cold weather in general.  I prefer 60s weather with buds on all the trees and the first stirrings of green in the yards.  Rumor has it we're getting close though so for those of you like me have hope!

With the onset of Spring also brings the height of the Miss America Organization pageant season. *(For those of you who are now completely confused, I am blessed to have a wonderful girlfriend who happens to compete in the Miss America Organization and uses her many talents to benefit the community, the organization, and the environment.)  It just so happens that pageant season comes around the same time that spring does; and with spring Reina's work with her platform - Sustain-Ability: Impacting Tomorrow, Today.  As a part of that work, she is kicking off a 30 Blogposts to Help YOU Go Green Campaign today.  Her month of attempting to be as green and sustainable as possible has inspired me to try and do better on a lot of the simple things in daily life. Therefore, I will be sharing my hints, tips, and tricks with you much like Reina is.  You can check hers out here and if you email subscribe to my blog, follow me on Twitter (@connoragriffin), or find me on Facebook you'll constantly annoyed with links to my latest posts:)  Below is my first post; which is really more of a challenge than anything:

30 Days Without Disposable Containers

I work at a locally owned coffee shop here in Spokane (Forza Coffee Company on 29th and Regal - you should totally come check it out sometime) and was struck stupid one day by how many sleeves of paper and plastic cups we go through in a week.  As a huge coffee fanatic I went on to realize that it wasn't just my shop that customers are walking out of with this disposable cups.  It's the Starbucks down the street or the other local shop across the street and all of the other coffee shops in town and across the country.  Worse than that is that it's not only faceless "customers" who do it; its ME too!!!

At this point it is of utmost importance to clarify that I am not attacking these coffee shops, restaurants, and convenience stores who sell drinks in these cups.  I'm not attacking anyone.  But to be completely honest, it is us as the consumer who is responsible for all of this waste.  And if you're curious about what I mean by "all this waste" let me present a few facts to you:

• Worldwide 430 trillion (430,000,000,000) plastic bottles and containers (Bs&Cs) are thrown away each year.  That translates to roughly 140,000 per second.  These plastic Bs&Cs take over 200 years just to start decomposing! ¹
• The United States threw away 3,810,000 TONS (7,620,000,000lbs) of plastic Bs&Cs - roughly 190 billion units.  That's about 605 units per person, per year.¹

I'm not sure about you, but as an English major, all those zeroes has my head spinning.  And that's just plastic containers. That does NOT include the paper cups that are the most common to-go containers for warm drinks in the U.S. Wrap your head around that! 

My "trusty Nalgene".. My Forza mug was
in the car and due to snow I didn't
want to go get it:)

After realizing that feeding my coffee... or two-a-day habit along with the other beverage items (sodas, juices, water, etc) that I purchase during the course of a month was directly contributing to these staggering figures I decided it was time to make a difference.  Don't get me wrong, I realize that my month of not using disposable containers is more likely than not to have no concrete impact whatsoever on these national figures.  Where it will have an impact is in my local dump and immediate environment.  That's 50 containers, give or take, that are not going into the dump.  Might not seem like much but more and more people are realizing that it's not going to be the politicians and "environmental agencies" that will make a global impact; it's going to be hundreds of thousands of individual efforts coming together for the collective good - and this is my contribution to that collective good.

Therefore, starting right. now. I will be forgoing all disposable drink containers for the next month instead using my trusty Nalgene bottle and Forza travel mug. I promise to use these when I have them or simply pass on the beverage if I don't.  In this effort it is my desire to make an individual impact on my local environment.  It is here that YOU can help me:

Join Me.

All it takes is a BPA-free water bottle and a travel mug if you're a warm beverage drinker.  If you don't have one or more of these (which in today's America would be incredibly surprising) you can set yourself up with a great Nalgene from Amazon for about $10² and Target sells cheap, easy, dishwasher-safe travel mugs for under $10³ as well.  

There are no excuses for not doing this.  If the $20 bucks is a monumental issue (and hey.. I'm a college kid, I understand if it really is) think of it this way: Most coffee shops and convenience stores give you a discount ranging anywhere between $.10-.25 for bringing in your own cup.  If you use it every day that adds up to about $7.50.  That's roughly three-fourths of your "start-up costs" and in two months you'll have paid for it and then some.  Not to mention you get to be hip and trendy... go you hipster, you.

So what will you do then? I'm not saying that you have to do this to have an impact on your environment (it does help though!).  There are tons and tons of quick easy things you can do in your everyday life that can make a difference and I'll be posting a lot of those throughout the next 30 days.  Think about it; I implore you.  Question your excuses and ask yourself "what's really stopping me?" So I ask beg you...

Join Me.


Post a comment below if you are taking the challenge with me, are curious about more info, or simply have a question of feedback.  Comments always make bloggers happy!

Until you read again,
Connor


(Okay, okay... like I said, I'm an English major and we're a stickler for where we got our information so here it is)

¹"Fast Facts." Earth Distributer. 2011. Web. 22 Mar 2012.
²http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=travel+mug&category=0%7CAll%7Cmatchallany%7Call+categories
³http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_7?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=nalgene+bpa+free+water+bottles&x=0&y=0&sprefix=nalgene%2Cgarden%2C358