I\u2019m sitting here in a Starbucks with a container of coffee in front of me, watching a cashier wait on customers. She\u2019s been writing about half of the orders on cups and putting them in a queue for the barista (which I call a mixologist). She takes care of the simple coffee orders in a routine way that may someday be done by a robot: listen to the order \u2013 turn to the back counter \u2013 grab the proper size cup \u2013 fill it with blonde, pike or dark roast coffee \u2013 install a top \u2013 slip the cup into a thin, cardboard sleeve \u2013 swivel back around and hand the container to the customer. I watch her do this again and again, always exactly the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the sleeves that bother me. I don\u2019t know why, they just do. Whenever I\u2019m handed a container with a sleeve, I wonder why they don\u2019t use better cups. My sleeves end up stuck in my car\u2019s cup holder or the one on my bicycle. It\u2019s no small thing, the proliferation of these sleeves across the land. It is estimated that Starbucks goes through eight to ten million every day \u2013 close to FOUR BILLION a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not a whacko environmental extremist, just a regular environmentally aware person. I take care of my trash, recycle and pick up stray litter on occasion, though I do take a frowned on \u201cSunday drive\u201d every week. I like to survey my world and learn where the roads go. It\u2019s an inborn, genetic trait to know your territory, going back to the days of the cavemen when it was important to know where the wooly mammoths roamed and the saber-toothed tigers lurked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not that the sleeves are that much of an environmental hazard anyway \u2013 they are biodegradable, but still, they irk me. I guess it\u2019s an old coot thing. Right now, the one on my cup has slipped down and is resting on the table, like an extra-large shirt collar surrounding the neck of a skinny-necked guy like me. Every time I take a sip, I have to slide it up on the cup. Maybe my issue is increased by the picture of the Starbuck\u2019s woman on the sleeve, wearing a crown and staring at me with a smug, disapproving look on her face. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It\u2019s the same look my third grade teacher gave me when I handed in a test paper, an ink stained and eraser-shredded work of art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n