{"id":23202,"date":"2015-02-06T10:26:33","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=23202"},"modified":"2015-02-06T10:26:44","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:26:44","slug":"lugging-mugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2015\/02\/06\/lugging-mugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Lugging Mugs"},"content":{"rendered":"I throw out a lot of stuff. I also drink too much tea.\r\n\r\nSuch are my conclusions after a week of hanging onto every paper cup I would have thrown away.\r\n\r\nI was inspired by a radio interview I heard a few weeks ago where students in middle schools were encouraged to carry around with them everything they\u2019d planned to throw out. I appreciate having at least one free hand if I can manage it, so opted to just collect rather than collect and carry. I also didn\u2019t collect everything, but estimated that my use of disposable mugs would be my greatest contribution to landfill.\r\n\r\n\"Photo\r\n\r\nFor seven days I kept every paper cup I would have thrown away. The result is what you see above: sixteen sixteen-ounce (480 ml) paper cups that might not have needed to be in the garbage. They are, in fact, recyclable, according to the Three One One Toronto website<\/a>. The teabags contained therein were also compostable through the Green Bin program<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\"Inage\r\n\r\nCue my guilt.\r\n\r\nThe worst part of this is that I own a reusable travel mug. But the inconvenience of having to carry it around and the fairly high risk of it leaking everywhere gives me pause. I also seem to get water between the thermos walls whenever I wash it, so it appears to be leaking every time I drink out of it. I realize there are fixes, but I have been hitherto too lazy to figure it out. I also realize that these are excuses, and not valid reasons for not going green.\r\n\r\nThere\u2019s also the concern of my drinking habits. 16 cups over 7 days is over two cups of (mostly decaffeinated) tea a day. That\u2019s over a litre daily of fluid I\u2019m taking in that isn\u2019t water.\r\n\r\nNot cool, Robert Frost.\r\n\r\n