Coffee cups

For the past few years, I've noticed a trend in coffee cup disposal practices.

One night I was hankering to write something, so I put together a Letter to the Editor of Whistler's weekly paper, the Pique.

Lately, the Letters section has been full of municipal government controversy, property tax complaints, and Olympic musings. I thought it'd be good to mix it up and submit some content totally unrelated to what is usually presented.

I submitted a letter about coffee cups, and waited with bated breath for Thursday, when the new edition is published and circulated.

Unfortunately, my letter was not accepted, and the Pique published this week without it. I figure the tone wasn't right for the paper. I'll post it here instead.

Coffee Cups

I’ve got a gripe about coffee cups.

It’s been happening for years, and nobody’s noticed. You probably even do it yourself.

What happens when you buy a coffee that’s too big, and it goes cold on you? Obviously, being an environmentally conscientious Whistlerite, you want to throw it away. But you’re in the middle of the Marketplace or Day Lots, and you don’t really want to trek all the way over to the garbage can.

Instead of tossing it out the window and peeling onto the road like some fraternity bro, you gingerly set your half-full cup of cold brew on the pavement, standing up. Make sure it doesn’t spill! Next, you slowly pull out and merge into traffic, making sure to use your signal.

If you leave your cup standing up, it’s not really littering, right? If you leave it near where your door was, people will think you’ve simply been forgetful, no? After all, you’re a responsible citizen.

You’re not fooling anyone! It’s littering all the same! It’s actually worse than littering, because instead of just being ugly, it’s ugly and irritating.

So, do me a favour. If you’re going to leave your cups in the lots, just squish them up and let the coffee run where it will. Since someone has to clean up after you anyway, you might as well save that person the trouble of dumping it out.