Coffee shops are a very common daily routine to many people, to jump start your day. By some studies, it is estimated that Americans drink more than one hundred billion cups of coffee each year. Out of these, 14.4 billion cups are sold in disposable cups. These cups have a thin lining to keep the inside waterproof, which keeps the cups from being recycled. So, about forty percent of paper and cardboard in landfills is disposable cups. If one person can bring their own reusable cup to get drinks, in a week 1.25 pounds of Carbon Dioxide emissions will be saved. My sister and I are Starbucks fanatics, and I think that taking this action would be an easy way to reduce my personal carbon footprint. People could also make their own coffee at home, or even go without it. Some studies say that apples work just as well as coffee to wake you up, and apples can save a lot of carbon, as they do not involve heating, water, or containers. Here is the link to the disposable cups article-http://www.carbonrally.com/challenges/1 … offee-Cups . Here is the article about apples versus  coffee- http://www.personal.psu.edu/afr3/blogs/ … -does.html

This is a great idea. I know of plenty of coffee shops, especially starbucks, who offer to fill cups that you buy at their store. This can reduce the amount of plastic cups, but most people tend to stick with buying the plastic cups because it is easier. So if stores started using cups that are easy to break down or promoting the reusable cups, we could reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility … sable-cups This link shows what starbucks goal is for their reusable cups, but people really need to start taking more action. I drink apple juice instead of coffee every morning, because it does wake you up more. But, apple juice tends to come in plastic containers also. My dad has a coffee machine that he uses every morning, and I think it would be good for people who drink coffee to have these because it not only helps the environment, it is also cheaper.

Those are good thoughts Riley! Some participating Starbucks even give a small discount if you use reusable cups, which I think is a great idea. This could persuade people to buy these cups, so that they can save money and carbon emissions. However, your apple juice isn't very eco-friendly; the plastic bottles have a huge impact on carbon levels. You can make your own apple juice, or just eat plain apples if you are looking for a more eco-friendly option.

Great idea I will defiantly use this advise!

I agree that people should choose the more eco-friendly way and bring their own reusable water bottles/ cups. Whenever I am at sports practice, I see many paper cups thrown on the ground. It disgusts me how people can do these things, but I also understand that they are in a hurry to get back to the playing field. However, I agree with Riley and Anna on the fact that if people bring their own reusable water bottles to sports practice to use that instead of paper cups as a means of drinking, then it would really help our environment. The site listed below gives many reasons why you should get your own reusable water bottle.
http://www.banthebottle.net/articles/th … led-water/

This was all very interesting! It really encouraged me to use a reusable cup.

Woah I have never thought about that. Which is a shocking amount of waste produced by one cup of coffee a day. I will most certainly apply this to my daily morning  routine and use a re-usable cup.

I agree that disposable cups pose as quite a big problem in our society today. We often use these cups without even thinking about how much it hurts our environment. While plastic water bottles are a bit more efficient to use, as they can be recycled, I believe they are also a fairly big problem as well because they keep piling up since people use them so often. In order to try to limit the amount of plastic water bottles used, my school no longer sells bottled water to try to bring the number of plastic water bottles down. My school is trying to promote the use of reusable bottles so that we can start helping the environment, even if it is a small gesture. From this experience, I believe we can start acting to limit the amount of disposable cups as well in our small communities, like schools, clubs, neighborhood, etc. They may seem like small gestures, but in the end, it would make a big difference in helping our environment.

I very much agree that everyone should use reusable cups rather than disposable ones. My old school did not promote recycling at all and as a girl scout on a mission, my troop made sure to provide the school with recycling bins and we talked to the whole school about recycling more often. However, after a year or so the students started using the recycle bin as another garbage can. Individually I strictly enforced recycling to those that didn't and I made people that littered pick up their own garbage. Even though we recycled it didn't make that much of an impact since most students didn't understand the impact recycling really does make, At my new school we promote both recycling and using reusable water bottles which I really love. I notice that almost everyday though cups are bought through the lunch line to get soda. I know that students love soda and I do not oppose them getting soda, I just believe that it should be allowed to get it using our own water bottles rather than using the cups given because I see them everywhere. Although they may be recycled it still do es impact the environment. I hope one day that every  fast food restaurant requires a reusable bottle so that when buying drinks for meals they can be paid for by amount gotten. It would reduce the carbon footprint greatly with not as many cups being thrown out.