Step 3: Making a Change

Although certain people may not see cutting back their Starbucks intake as challenging, it has been rather difficult for me to stop drinking my usual venti iced coffee. When it is a late night in the library and I’m running out of fuel, it is beyond tempting to go into Skillman and order something that will give me a brain boost.  However, I could just go back to my dorm and fill up my cup of coffee and make my way back to the library.  Changing this behavior has been difficult, but although I do miss my trips to Starbucks, many positive things are coming out of this.

Using my Keurig instead of buying coffee elsewhere has saved me a ton of money.  Normally I would get 2 special coffees a day, each costing about 4 dollars. Therefore, switching to my Keurig has saved me about 8 dollars a day, which is actually a ton of money when you add up all of the days I’ve been at school.  Also, without going to Skillman in the morning I save myself about 10 more extra minutes of sleep and get to class on time because I do not have to wait in the very long lines for coffee.

Changing my behavior has not impacted me negatively at all.  Although sometimes it is not ideal to go back to my dorm to get coffee or just not have it at all, I feel like I am doing something good for the environment.  Another thing that I noticed is I do not have to throw away my plastic cups in a trash bin that’s not meant for recycling.  Often times in places like the library there are not appropriate recycling bins so I do tend to throw my cup in a normal trash bin.  Although the main point of changing my behavior was to decrease the amount of plastic used, I am finding myself using better recycling habits as well, which I did not expect.

 Website: Reusable vs Disposable Cups

The above website describes a study focusing on the amount of energy used to create reusable and disposable cups.  After reading this, I still believe that using a reusable cup (as often as I do) will benefit the environment instead of using disposable cups.