Styrofoam, or polystyrene, is one of the least biodegradeable materials known to man (we're talking upwards of 100,000 years to degrade) and very few companies have the facilities for recycling it yet. Also, polystyrene will leach chemicals into the hot liquids with which it comes into contact. That includes coffee and tea.
In other words... Styrofoam - Huhh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
Yet it's one thing to attempt to badger people into giving up their styrofoam habit yet another entirely to actually get them off it. So we gave them a little incentive. A trip to our local 99¢ store later and we had purchased ten porcelain mugs for $9.99 and left them in the kitchen with a note: "TAKE US!" A company wide email followed with our free offer and our intentions.
Happily, the feedback was positive. The mugs went fast and the emails of appreciation and support flooded in shortly thereafter. If each of those ten new mug owners have now been dissuaded from using two Styrofoam cups each day, five times per week, that equals a reduction of 5000 cups per year! Now, imagine if one sponsible soul in every company across the nation followed suit. We'd be talking over 200 million Styrofoam cups saved from going
into landfills, rivers and oceans. Here's to hoping a few of you reading this consider joining us in our quest to clean up this place. Let us know if you do and how you did. We'll pick one respondent to receive a shiny new sponsible mug!By the way, an interesting dissertation on the comparative environmental impacts of Styrofoam cups vs. ceramic mugs can be found at Ask Pablo.
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