Keep Your Cuff Campaign™

Yesterday I noticed my office waste paper basket had not been emptied for several days. Because I recycle every scrap of paper possible, the only thing that ends up in my waste paper basket are my discarded coffee cups and there were three of them in there. No, I don't drink three cups a day. They were left over from last week. For every discarded coffee cup there was also a discarded cardboard comfort sleeve. What a terrible waste! That revelation inspired me to start the Keep Your Cuff Campaign™.

Joining the Keep Your Cuff Campaign™ is simple and will prevent needless waste of perfectly good paper products. Unless you are a particularly uncoordinated and sloppy coffee/tea drinker, you comfort cuff should be clean and unstained and perfectly good for many repeat uses. Before you toss your used paper coffee/tea cup, slip off the comfort cuff and store it in your desk drawer for your next cup. If you enjoy you coffee/tea on the way to work (I don't advocate drinking anything while driving!), slip off the cuff and tuck in the car's console or in the glove box and take it with you when purchasing your next hot beverage. Your coffee/tea vendor will thank you for reducing demand for supplies and the Earth will thank you for reducing landfill waste and saving trees.

You can find numerous reusable cup cuffs for sale. Some are funny, some are artistic, some are carved from wood and double as wrist jewelry, but most are just expensive. The one you get at the coffee vendor is free, so use it for as long as you can!

And yes, I've approached my agency's catering company about offering reusable travel mugs in the cafeteria or allowing customers to use their own mugs, but they gave me a flat, "No." I'm not taking that as a final answer, and will post about progress on this front in the future.