Environmental Challenge of the Week

Last Wednesday, I was honored to be a guest on Radioactive's morning talk show with host Craig Hammond. If you're in Bluefield, you can tune to 1440 AM in the mornings. A "tape" of Wednesday's show is below. I cut out the parts that don't involve me.

The host, Craig is a friend of mine these days. I go to his coffee house when I get a chance and we talk about whatever the local issue happens to be that morning. So I went on his show to represent ASP. I talked for a couple minutes about ASP--let people know who we are, what we're doing, and where they can go to fill out an application.

Then, for the next 10-15 minutes, the conversation turned to environmental issues. We talked and debated about "square foot gardening," wastewater treatment, stormwater treatment, and whatever else. It was a lot of fun to have a former mayor of Bluefield asking me questions like that on a radio show.

Anyway, while my laundry was drying at the laundromat this Saturday, I stopped in at Craig's coffee house "News and Brew." I proposed that I should call in every Monday with a new "Environmental Challenge of the Week." He loved the idea. So from now on, I'm going to call in at 9:15 AM and offer a new challenge each week. The challenge isn't just for the listeners, but for the guys in the studio as well. The first will be to use reusable coffee mugs instead of disposable. I will try to offer pertinent statistics and information. Here's how it will go:

• Americans consume more than 16 billion paper cups per year

• In 2006, paper cups accounted for 252 million pounds of garbage. This required 4 billion gallons of water, and 6.5 million trees, and enough energy to power over 50 thousand homes

What about coffee cups from recycled paper? FDA regulations are very strict when it comes to beverages coming in contact with recycled paper, and recycled paper is too flimsy of a material to retain the liquid. Starbucks tried to manufacture a recycled paper cup, but was unable to succeed.

Alternatives? One sustainability engineer concluded that after 24 uses, a stainless steel mug is as environmentally friendly as using paper cups.

Is environmentalism expensive? No...a study done in 2000 showed that Starbucks could save $1 million dollars per year by switching to reusable cups.

So my challenge to you this week is to bring your reusable mug or travel mug next time you go to the Hardee's, or to your favorite coffee shop.

References: Sustainability Is Sexy (.com)
All references are detailed on the site

These posts can be found on their own site: http://bfenvrionmentalchallenge.blogspot.com/