New mug to save trees

By: Rob Barry

Posted: 2/28/05

Any UConn student who regularly visits the Homer Babbidge library has likely either witnessed or been party to a subversive practice known as coffee smuggling. Whether wrapped casually in a patron's coat or cleverly balanced inside a backpack, these non-regulation cups o' joe have been infiltrating the library for years.

One can notice half a dozen coming through in a span of 10 minutes, depending on the time of day. Sometimes people even stick a cup of coffee in their pockets and spill it all over their pants.

There is a little-known travel mug that can help patrons avoid such spills as well as the rebuke of security officers while being environmentally conscious.

This Wednesday, Bookworms Café will be holding Eco Husky Mug Day, where the squat, blue, library-approved mugs will be sold at a discount price of $2.35 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Besides being reusable, the mugs have no-skid bottoms and easy-to-clean, "library approved" lids.

The promotion has been put together by a combination of the Eco Huskies, the Department of Dining Services and the Office of Environmental Policy (OEP).

But Mug Day would not have come about if not for the efforts of one man who sells coffee.

"I figured I would use my resources to get the word out about the Eco Mugs," said Morgan Heald, the location supervisor at Bookworms Café. "Dining Services bought them, but nobody's making it known how good a thing these are."

The mugs are sold at all six of the dining services' cafes, but few are buying them. Heald believes it is because they have never really been promoted.

Heald also said over 1.2 million paper cups are thrown out from the campus cafés each year.

"If half the student population at UConn bought the reusable EcoHusky mug, we could save over 600,000 cups a year," said Melanie Murphy, an intern at the OEP who helped organize Mug Day.

Murphy said it would be one of the larger events dedicated to waste paper reduction this year.

"We also have the double-sided copy initiative and are pushing for mailing list reduction," Murphy said. "But this is the big one."

Heald said if the average coffee drinking UConn student drinks about 64 cups a year, any increase in Eco Mug use would provide a valuable reduction in waste.

"My goal is to sell three cases - that's just over 100 - but that's not important," he said. "I'm gonna get a bunch and sell as many as I can."