Monday, November 29, 2010

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For this eye-opener, I decided to document my coffee drinking habits and my shift from one behavior to another. All photos were taken by Yours Truly.
This is the coffee shop here at UMD. Although I occasionally make my own, this is where I tend to buy most of my coffee, especially if I'm in a hurry or really tired.


I like buying coffee from school because they sell Peace Coffee! For those of you who don't know, Peace Coffee sells only organic/fair trade coffee and operates out of Minneapolis MN. They even have people deliver coffee on bikes! Needless to say I feel good about supporting this brand. But I could still be a bit more eco-friendly with my coffee-drinking habits.

This is an example of a disposable cup I buy and then throw away (or recycle) each time I buy coffee at school. Although you'll notice the cup says it's eco-friendly, it would still be better not to use these at all.

I noticed the school has a great selection of reusable coffee mugs in the school store. This seemed like it could help me on my quest to be a more eco-friendly coffee drinker.


Here's my nice new (sort of dirty) reusable coffee mug! This way, I'm not generating all the waste I was before each time I drank coffee from a disposable cup. This was a very environmentally conscious choice, if I do say so myself.

Thanks for checking out my photo essay! I hope it was eye-opening and informative. 



5 comments:

  1. Great photos Emily. I love your commitment to reducing your impact!

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  2. I really liked your photo essay! I never knew that we offered Peace Coffee (or even what it was)! Thanks for sharing this with all of us! =)

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  3. Great photo essay! I really wondered the same thing about those "recyclable" cups. You would think they would generate some source of waste. UMD would love you for promoting their coffee shop and nice selection of coffee cups. :) Those coffee mugs are great to have though. Usually they are bigger than the coffee shop's cups and you can keep reusing them!

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  4. Awesome photo essay Emily! I didn't realize that there were eco-friendly coffee options but now I know, thanks. It's cool to see that you not only went more eco-friendly with your coffee mug but you supported the school as well, very nice. I will probably actually purchase a coffee mug as well from the school thanks to your post. Nice job.

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  5. Yay!! Nice new mug! And Peace coffee is the besttttt! Great photo essay, people totally forget that they can bring their own mugs to the coffee shop AND get a discount! $1.70 versus $1.97 PLUS you're helping the environment, a win win!

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