Coffee and the State of the Planet

Who doesn’t love a hot rich cup of Joe? Well, nearly most of us do but the impact our brown bean obsession has on the planet is pretty bad. No, it’s absolutely terrible. Every morning, millions and millions of people line up at coffee bars, shops, convenience stores, gas stations and hot drink dispensers to fill up on the nation’s most popular hot beverage.

The disposable Styrofoam coffee cup is a detriment to the planet and increases the size of any carbon footprint. Oh but what about the paper ones you say? Turns out most paper coffee cups are made from bleached virgin tree, meaning very difficult to recycle and not exactly sustainable. Bad bad coffee cups.

But when these unrecyclable coffee cups end up in landfills, things go from bad to worse. The plastic coating on the inside of the cups that prevents the liquid from leaking out? Well when the paper corrodes, the chemicals in the plastic coating off gas releasing methane into the atmosphere. Methane is an uber greenhouse gas that is directly related to the heating of the planet and climate change. Bad bad methane.

So what to do? How can we enjoy our favorite wake up liquid without harming the planet? It’s really quite easy: make your coffee at home. These days, you can find everything for a coffee shop style Joe in the supermarket. Get a coffee maker, a grinder if you must, a few flavored syrups and voila! Home made coffee.

Home made coffee has a much lower impact on the planet (remember to unplug when you are done), saves a lot of money and taste just as good as the planet killing stuff. But there are still areas where things can go wrong.

For instance, making your coffee at home is great until you buy beans from Arabia and carry the coffee around in an off gassing plastic container. We make coffee in the states. If you have to go further a field choose Mexico or Canada over exotic locales. This reduces the transportation footprint and reduces the chance of purchasing unfairly traded beans.

So choose a steel thermos or travel mug for your locally produced made at home coffee. This will lower your costs and your planetary impact. It may also help reduce the amount of trees destroyed each year for cups and force coffee shop owners to make wiser choices in their beverage containers. Remember consumer consume and smart consumers consume at home to instigate change.

Be a carbon reducing coffee warrior and do your part.

Anyone else thirsty?