Those who know me know that I love coffee. I must drink, on average, 3 cups a day, (and they’re big travel cups). Often I’ll have a coffee at home but I also love having a coffee on the way to work or after work to relax. For a while now I’ve been taking my Tim Hortons reusable travel mug everywhere with me and I don’t get a coffee to go unless I have it and can use it.
When I go to Tim Hortons I don’t have any problems with garbage because milk and sugar, (or in my case, hot chocolate), is added to my coffee by a machine behind the counter. There are also lots of independent cafés that have milk and sugar in large containers so you dump as much, (or as little), as you need in your cup and you’re ready to go. However, I’ve started to realize that there are cafés, often Second Cup, where the only way to get sugar is in little single-serve packets. Lots of restaurants also have milk and sugar in individual packets. I asked myself how to deal with this problem.
I am going to start carrying in my bag, with my reusable cup, a little container of sugar. Then I’ll be able to put as much sugar as I want in my coffee without garbage and refill the container at the house when I need to . I’ll try to avoid restaurants and cafés where milk is served in single-serve packages because I can’t carry milk around with me all day unrefrigerated.
At least that will be a start. I will also start to carry a spoon to stir my coffee so I don’t have to use a little plastic or wooden stick. These things aren’t very big or heavy, I just have to remember to bring them.