My Green Tips

Remember when McDonald’s stopped using Styrofoam containers? This was a big win for the environment.

But there are still some major offenders. Dunkin Donuts and their styrofoam cups add millions of styrofoam cups to landfills everyday. In December of 2004 Fast Company reported that Dunkin Donuts was serving over 2.8 Million cups a day.

Styrofoam cups also have potential health hazards. Styrene is transferred from the cups into your coffee. The health affects are not fully known at this time but adding chemicals to your food and drinks is usually not a good idea.

So what can you do?

• Avoid/boycott places that use styrofoam.
• Use a refillable cup. Most places will give you a discount for bringing your own cup.

I used to get coffee from Dunkin Donuts almost everyday. I bought one of the refillable cups and used it for about a year. The refill price was almost half the price of a regular cup. They jacked the refill price up and I abandoned ship and went to Starbucks. I reuse their paper cups and get $0.55 refills. If I rinse and dry the cup right away I can make it about a week on one paper cup before it starts to leak.

So not only can you save some money but you can help make the earth a better place to live for future generations at the same time!

According to National Geographic between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed each year.

Next time you go to the store to buy something that’s probably already packaged in three layers of plastic make a different choice. Plastic bags are often not biodegradable and are usually made from petroleum. Also consider the energy used to produce these bags and ship them to the store.

So should I choose paper or plastic?

The best answer is None of the above.

Either refuse the bag if you can carry the items without it or bring your own bag. Many stores now sell reusable shopping bags but you can use any bag. I recommend the heavy cloth bags like ones they’ve been selling at Trader Joes for years. They are durable, will last a long time, you can wash them and best of all you won’t have to worry about a flimsy plastic or paper bag ripping and spilling your groceries all over the place.

If all else fails choose paper over plastic. Although energy is consumed logging, milling the paper and transporting it to the store it is a natural and renewable product.