When you visit a coffee shop in the morning before work you probably notice the long line of cars waiting for coffee and long streams of customers coming out the door.

As this is going on everyone is getting their coffee served in paper cups which aren’t exactly friendly to the environment.

On a daily basis if you think about it there are thousands of cups thrown out in communities all over the country.

This is a huge problem and the impact on the environment just isn’t something that we can ignore anymore.

While many industries use recycled paper the beverage and food industry isn’t one of them. When we get coffee in coffee cups it is bleached virgin paperboard that we are using.

You might think that it’s better to use paper instead of Styrofoam for your coffee because paper can be recycled but this is misleading.

On the cups there is a plastic resin applied during their manufacture, so the coffee stays hot and the cups don’t leak. This resin keeps the cups from being recycled and instead they go to landfills.

It takes plenty of energy, trees and water to manufacture paper cups.

There is a better way to make these cups which benefits our eco-conscious society. An alternative to the single-use coffee cup is a cup that’s re-usable. These cups have a lot of added benefits.

While it does take more material initially to create a reusable coffee cup, over the long-run the impact these cups have on the environment is less if you compare it to traditional single use coffee cups.

While there was some concern in the past over the plastic in cups, the re-useable cups that we make today are all BPA free.

Customers and coffee-shop owners also save in the long run when reusable mugs are promoted. Shop owners don’t have to provide throw away cups and customers can bring their own re-useable mugs for their coffee purchases.

Some coffee shop owners provide a small discount to customers who bring their own mugs.

Coffee mugs that are eco-friendly make great promotional items because it’s something that people us on a daily basis while going to work.

This is an opportunity to get your brand out here on a product that people will see.

Michael writes for EnviroBottles in Ontario, a company which offers environmentally friendly products that help reduce our impact on the environment.

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