A little Q&A

One of the things I wanted to do originally with the blog was to share some environmental factoids with everyone about the real impact of throwing everything away. We need to understand that the things (coffee cups are just the tip of the iceberg) that we use to make our lives "easier" on a daily basis are things that we only use for minutes a day but they are built to be around forever. That's not an exaggeration. The paper cup, the sleeve, lid, napkin, stir stick, sugar packet--it takes a lot of packaging to make one cup of coffee exist. That's not even mentioning the coffee processing itself, which I'll leave to another blogger. So I want to illustrate how easily we can all find this info. I am not working with anyone who has any more knowledge about recycling or green living than the average Joe. I only have access to the same information as everyone else.

So I Googled "How many disposable cups does the average American use per year" and "Recycling statistics." One site that kept coming up was Sustainability is Sexy. They have some good stuff on the subject, plus it looks like they have mugs for sale. Here is a sampling of some of their info:

• Typical paper coffee cups aren't made from recycled paper. Instead, most cups are manufactured using 100% bleached virgin paperboard. Why don't manufacturers use recycled paper? Firstly, FDA regulations are strict when it comes to allowing recycled paper pulp to be in direct contact with food and beverages. Secondly, recycled paper isn't strong enough to hold a liquid.
• According to the paper industry, Americans will consume an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups in 2010. Rob Martin, the Vice President of Merchandising and Production for Tully's Coffee, estimated the 2006 use usage at 16 billion paper cups.
• Reusable mugs do more than just affect the environment positively--they also save both coffee houses and coffee drinkers money. A study done in 2000 found that Starbucks could save more than $1 million per year in packaging costs by implementing reusable cups.

I just copied some interesting bits from the site, but go check it out yourself. You don't need to donate money to anyone. You don't need to chain yourself to a tree in protest of deforestation. You just need to start with your own habits, so go get yourself a reusable coffee mug, or come find me, and I'll make sure you get one. 

A quick post before slipping into a coma....

OK, we literally just walked through the door from a nice little drive up from Palm Springs and my eyes are just barely open but I just had to comment on the newest developments.

As we were driving to the desert Monday morning, I get a text from a friend I hadn't seen in a while. She was asking me where I had been and also said "Nice '3-minuter' in the Examiner." This was my first notification that the interview was actually out Monday, as I hadn't gotten an exact answer on a date from the Examiner. Actually, since we just got back to S.F., I haven't even seen the paper version, just read it online. Very exciting stuff. Check it out.

I've had a lot of responses as a result of the interview and people are giving me a ton of good ideas and suggestions about how to make the blog and project better. Keep the enthusiasm coming, it helps me so much. Most of the questions and comments have been coming to my personal e-mail or phone (which is still cool) but I just want to encourage anyone with ideas about what you'd like to see on the blog or ideas for bettering the project to share those ideas, here, as comments on the blog. I want everyone to see the ideas and exchange thoughts and have it be interactive, if possible. One of the comments I'm hearing most often is that I need to blog more frequently. Totally legit. I'm gonna commit to upping my blogging to once a week at minimum and hopefully more.

More good news

Fantastic news! Even though I have not been quite the blogger I hoped to be, I have been giving mugs and talking about mugs and buying mugs, etc. So don't worry ( I know you've been worried) because heresyourmug is still alive and well. I have two exciting new developments to share with all of you. Ready?

First of all, I have an interview about this project coming out in the San Francisco Examiner. We're basically famous. It's a 3-minute interview but an interview nonetheless. Thanks to my amazing PR department (Karyne). A client at the salon asked if I had notified the Examiner about my blog and I said no, but it was a good idea. I told Karyne about this conversation, and as it turns out she knows someone at the Examiner. She sent out an e-mail and before I knew it, I was on the phone giving my first-ever interview about the mug project.  Im excited that now people who don't me personally or on Facebook might find out about the blog and it'll change their lives. That's what happens when you skim across an interview in the Examiner, right? It changes your life? That's what I thought. I don't know exactly what date it's coming out, but I will keep you all posted.

Second piece of amazing news is that Christine (my boss and the owner of Renaissance Salon) today asked me about my blog. We've been super busy at work lately, so although I have given her a mug, which she uses daily, we haven't had time to really talk about the project. Today, after hearing what the project is about and why I started it, she asked if I would accept a donation from her of $50 monthly. That's amazing! Now I can double my mug budget and get more sustainable solutions out there. The more people I talk to about this with, the better it gets.

Everyone's ideas and connections, no matter how big or small, are propelling this thing forward. This is exactly what I was hoping for with this project. My next task will be to set up a Paypal account, so people can donate through this blog. I'll get my PR person (Karyne) working on that right away.

At long last....

Don't turn this mother out.

OK, new mugs are finally on their way to us. I searched high and low around the city for mugs I like that are budget-friendly and as green as possible. No real luck. I've found either really great ones that are out of my price range or really inexpensive ones that seem, well...really inexpensive, to put it nicely. I really didn't want to order online because my whole point is to reduce waste and shipping is wasteful , however, I have a reuse for the materials, and I need the mugs, so I ordered.

Update from the Quality Control Dept.: The mugs I'm using are great, but I've gotten some feedback that they're not leak proof. OK, so yeah, if you wanna put the mug in your bag, you need to dump the coffee. They're more suited for your walk / drive / bus ride to work and gentle coffee uses. If you are a bike messenger or if you have a tick that would cause you to shake your coffee violently, these might not be your mugs. However, I still encourage you to seek out a reusable mug that is appropriate for shaken-not-stirred coffee preferances. 

Update from the PR Dept.: I'm thinking about staging some mini events at coffee shops around town. Not a lecture--just a casual little talk about what I'm doing and how it helps us, the environment, and the shop owner. I'll pair it with a giveaway. If anyone has an inside track on some local places that might be interested, let me know.

My poor, neglected blog

I haven't forgotten that I'm supposed to be saving the world one coffee mug at a time, and since I don't feel like boring anyone with the excuses of why I haven't been an active blogger, I'll just say this: I'm on it. I set today aside to run around and pick up mugs, but I came across a little problem: the mugs that I love are totally sold out. I spent the afternoon calling Peet's locations around S.F., the Peninsula, and even Marin but no luck.

I'm going to stick to the brand I've been using and just order them online. I didn't originally want to order online because I wanted to avoid shipping and the packing materials that come along, but I decided that since I'm moving soon, I'll repurpose the packing materials and then recycle them. Plus I really really like this brand of mugs and since I use one myself everyday, I know that they don't leak and are pretty sturdy. The last thing I want to do is give people mugs that leak all over them and explode in the microwave. So, long story short, more mugs are on the way. Sorry for the delay.

Yay for Gay!

I hit the jackpot the other day at the Peet's in the Castro and got five of those mugs on clearance. I want to take this opportunity to say that although I mention Peet's a lot in my blog, I'm not actually endorsed by the company or anything. I do love their coffee, but I've mainly been sticking with those stores because they happen to carry the mugs I like, and they're getting rid of them for five bucks. So if you're wondering if I'll eventually stray from them being my mug supplier, the answer is yes, I will.

Moving on. As you may know, today was a big day for gays. Prop 8 was overturned in CA and people were celebrating all over the city. I saw on Facebook that there was a support rally at City Hall so Karyne and I headed over. As it wrapped up, we were getting back in the car and I remembered that the five mugs were in the trunk. I felt like this was a good opportunity to talk to people who were already in a good mood, so I grabbed my mugs, quickly wrote the blog address on the sleeve, and went to handing them out.

I was pretty well recieved. One question was, "You don't go to anti-gay rallies and hand these out, too, right?"  Nope, I sure don't.  The other question was, "Is it OK if I'm not a big coffee drinker?" Yeah, it is. Whatever you'd normally be putting in a disposable cup, put it in here instead. That was it. I quickly unloaded five mugs and at the same time celebrated progress with the gays and gay allies. Pretty good night.

July turns into August

My coworker Danny is so stoked on his new mug.

First the old business...Didn't get around to using up my last 15 bucks by yesterday, and now it's officially August, so I'm going to roll over that money and make my August budget $65.

Now for the new business...I had two mugs left, so I gave them away at work today--one to my coworker and one to a client. At first, I wasn't too keen on the idea of talking about my mug project at work because I was wondering if that was some weird conflict of interest. Like, if I told either clients or coworkers about the project and they weren't into it or just really got their kicks using paper cups, would our conversation be awkward? Would I be that annoying person with a cause?  But then I thought, what the hell? It's fine. If I want to get as many people as possible to kick the paper cup habit, and my job puts me in contact with a lot of cool people who might be into this, then it's kind of stupid not to tell people about it. Right? Right!