Wednesday Waste-o-Meter -- Week 1

I was a plastic water bottle junkie. More on that later.


Apparently, I am also a plastic-bag junkie. Witness a picture of my office desk drawer:




Although I bring my lunch to work quite a bit (today -- Katie's outstanding Pancit), there are many days when I head out for lunch and receive a bag exclusively for carrying said lunch back to my desk. Over the last year, I have probably thrown away more than 100 of these bags just so I have the convenience of carrying my falafel salad back to my desk.


Back to plastic water bottles... my office provides free water in the form of filtered or bottles and I used to be the guy that would take a case of water back to my desk and proceed to destroy it in a couple of days. I was a serious junkie.

Since then I decided to buy a Klean Kanteen for a number of reasons -- I'm a little freaked out about plastic leaching from bottles, filtered water is probably better than bottled water from a health standpoint, and I was getting a serious case of the guilties through all my bottled water drinking. I haven't sworn it off entirely... I went through about three litres of bottled water last time I was on a plane, and I drink some carbonated stuff, etc. etc. So instead of a junkie I'm more like a functioning plastic user.


Ok... onto the weekly tallies.


A. How many bags of non-recycling garbage did I throw away last week? 1 -- although it is full right now so far all intents and purposes it should be 2.


B. How many plastic water bottles this week? 0!!!!


C. How many styrofoam containers? 2 -- This one is tough... I love the meze trio at Mediterranean Kitchen at Westlake Center, which comes in styrofoam. (Yes, I'm a foodie of the highest order.)


D. How many plastic bags.? 0!!! I brought a plastic bag with me to Mediterranean Kitchen and took it out of my pocket when they were about to put my styrofoam container in it. I felt like a hobo -- so the next time I just asked for it without a bag. And carrying it without a bag seemed to work just fine.


E. How many paper cups? 8 -- Yikes! I get coffee everyday and I need to get a mug or container. Monorail Espresso and Cupcake Royale single-cup but the "Best" double-cups, hence the 8th, you can read about the "Best" here.


F. How much does my garbage weigh? Didn't get to this one.


New fun fact... I go through a LOT of plastic silverware I realized... need to think this one through. Until next week...

I Cheated on Monorail Espresso

On the weekends, in the 98122, I buy coffee at the Madrona location of Cupcake Royale, on the weekdays I buy coffee at Monorail Espresso.


On Thursday, though, running late for a meeting in another office and heading in on a bus from Interbay (don't ask), I grabbed a coffee from Seattle's "Best" Coffee on 4th & Pine.


I felt pretty guilty about it, which is strange because I only started going to Monorail this April when I changed offices and was previously drinking the "Best" or going where the stars go for coffee. I actually hid my finished coffee cup as I walked by the Monorail that morning and refused to give the espresso stand, the line, the baristas any eye contact.


I'm reformed with respect to my coffee drinking habits.... unless I'm in a hurry I guess... or an airport... or Lebanon.


Which brings me to the purpose of this post... the Americano Conundrum... which was part of the reason I switched to the Royale and something I forgot about the "Best".


The Americano Conundrum is when a barista asks if you would like "room for cream" with your Americano. If you say "no", as I do, then at the "Best" often times you will get a completely full cup of coffee that will severely burn your hands if you tilt the cup at even a 1 degree angle or if you try to put on a plastic lid. If you say "yes" (to avoid the burns) you may get a lot of room or a little room -- there is no standard. In this case I become worried that the barista thinks I don't know how to order coffee ("This guy wanted room for cream, but didn't put cream in his coffee".) If you try to avoid the conundrum and specify the amount of room ("I'd like walking room", "I'd like 3/4 inch room", "I'd like 3 fingers of room") then you just sound ridiculous.

At Cupcake Royale or Monorail, there is always a consistent amount of room. Enough that you can put cream in if you like and still not burn your hands.

There you go -- the Americano Conundrum.