As simplistic as it sounds, a travel mug makes a difference! According to Rob Martin, the Vice President of Merchandising and Production for Tully’s Coffee, Americans’ consume more than 16 billion paper cups every year. Starbucks alone used 2.3 billion cups in 2006. (http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/FY06_CSR_FULL.pdf  page 56) Can you imagine the savings if we all carried our travel mugs instead? Fewer trees would be needed to make the paper for the cups. Less petroleum would be required to manufacture and deliver them to stores, and to haul them away as trash after use. Less space would be taken up by the cups in landfills, and fewer of them could be found blowing along our nation’s streets and highways.

Not a hot beverage drinker? Carry a reusable water bottle!

The statistics for using water bottles are even more convincing. Americans spent $11 billion on bottled water in 2006. That required 1.5 million barrels of oil – enough to fuel 100,000 cars for one year. Only 1 in 5 of those bottles get recycled. This translates into significant waste – both in resources used, and over-burdened landfills. Carrying a reusable beverage container can significantly reduce the strain on our planet.