Coffee Cup Conundrum

I lose coffee cups. I lose travel mugs. At work I used to walk with the mug; set it somewhere; retrieve it weeks later only when stumbled upon. I have left them at coffee shops. I have buried them in the backyard. As such, I was in the market this week for a new travel mug.

Here's the mess I got into: What is my real carbon footprint by buying mug A, B, or C here around town?  



I thought, surely, the Thermos company from Illinois is a safe bet. Well, Shopko ships these mugs in from China. 

OK, then Cuisenart out of New York sounded promising. But Kohls receives them from China. 

Sears? The Copco brand from Illinois has them made in China, too. 

Borders? Seattle's Best mugs are made in...China.  

Aladdin, sold by REI: China.

Starbucks markets three styles- all from China.

Whole Foods offers their brand of travel mugs, made in China.  

I'm sure this is the tip of the slushy iceberg. 

Conundrum. I'm attempting to purchase a reusable cup so as not to consume a paper one. Or even the need for the coffee shop to wash their own china ware (!). Good intentions, right? BUT, the product I am attempting to buy in order to save resources has probably already used even more resources!  I'm saving a tree so it can do it's job of absorbing CO2, but end up consuming fossil fuels and emitting transportation CO2 in the process!


I'm not going to try to extrapolate figures into carbon tons, but the fact is that after the mug is produced in Beijing, it and its little buddies must travel, as the crow flies, 10,400 miles to Madison. I might as well use a cup made from recycled paper that comes from a sustainable forest in northern Wisconsin!


Check your coffee mugs. We're chasing our tails! 

A little searching on the net revealed some nice looking ceramic travel mugs, made in the USA. This seems to be the best answer at this point. Sounds like a lot less energy and resource usage, and I think I can handle not dropping it...

[Don't even get started on the transportation resource costs of beautiful reusable water bottles that keep us from using the dastardly disposable bottles with questionable water quality. We are so screwed in these drinking container cycles.]