Imagine if someone could make a small design change to an everyday item-say a paper coffee cup-that promises to make a huge impact on the world.
Imagine how many cups of coffee are sold every day, all over the world, in waterproof paper cups. Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, and a myriad of other fast food restaurants and convenience stores sell millions of cups of coffee a day.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, an environmentally conscious coffee distributor based in Vermont, had that thought. Conventional coffee cups are coated with a waterproofing substance manufactured from a petroleum by-product-which, of course, ends up leeching into the soil of landfills around the country as the cups degrade. Green Mountain wondered if it would be possible to develop a waterproof coating made from a naturally occurring, eco-friendly and biodegradable material. So they approached their supplier, International Paper, and voila! The duo came up with a cup design using corn, a completely renewable and entirely biodegradable substance, to waterproof their cups.
The result? They get to sell their coffee in their special venues, convenience stores and supermarkets around the country, and make a little contribution to the environment with every sale in the form of fewer pollutants. Not a bad result for a little cup of coffee!
So next time you gas up at a station with a convenience store attached, take a minute to see if they're selling Green Mountain Coffee Roasters coffee. If they are, you might want to grab a cup. You could be saving the planet.
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics. She expresses her opinions periodically on her blog, http://beyondagendas.blogspot.com.