Solving the portable mug dilemma
Byron Meinerth
Issue date: 3/24/07 Section: Opinions
- Page 1 of 2 next >
I must confess that over the past few months I have been feeding a coffee/hot chocolate addiction, which has now grown with the advent of portable mugs in the dining halls. Previously, I would have had to sit down and consume my drink all at once. But with the mugs, I can drink at a meal, at my destination subsequent to that meal, and during all of the time spent traveling between the two. More importantly though, the portable mugs have given me an upper hand in dealing with my friends, all of whom have shiny, metal mugs from L.L. Bean, Sigg, MSR, or the like. With the portable mugs, I could take notes in class and sip away on my Swiss Cappuccino just like they had been all year long.
However, much like a group of indigenous people who get the short end of the globalization stick, my stint came to end last week. In less than a period of two weeks, we, Colby College, had successfully managed in depleting a store of 3,000 portable mugs. Last week marked the nadir of the portable mug initiative, when the dining halls mustered some ceramic mugs and older gray Sodexho plastic mugs, in response to the reduction. But where could 3,000 mugs have gone in such a short time?
Thankfully, a large number of these mugs are still on the Colby campus. In fact, whenever a cup of coffee is poured, there is a lonely Sodexho mug waiting anxiously in a student's room, knowing that soon he will be accompanied by another mug. These mugs will then enjoy their respite from the hustle and bustle of Dana, Foss, or Roberts, until one day, they end up back at the source, or in a trash bin.
This last detail, unfortunately, is true and is even more disappointing than the general passivity with which some students have treated the portable mug program. Two weeks ago, Joe Klaus, associate director of dining services, had to send an e-mail to the custodians, asking them to sift through trash bins to look for discarded mugs, after he found out that students had been throwing the mugs out; hence some of the new transparent trash bags in place of black ones. And over the past few weeks, Foss has run out of portable mugs so quickly during meals that they are reverting back to the paper cups.
However, much like a group of indigenous people who get the short end of the globalization stick, my stint came to end last week. In less than a period of two weeks, we, Colby College, had successfully managed in depleting a store of 3,000 portable mugs. Last week marked the nadir of the portable mug initiative, when the dining halls mustered some ceramic mugs and older gray Sodexho plastic mugs, in response to the reduction. But where could 3,000 mugs have gone in such a short time?
Thankfully, a large number of these mugs are still on the Colby campus. In fact, whenever a cup of coffee is poured, there is a lonely Sodexho mug waiting anxiously in a student's room, knowing that soon he will be accompanied by another mug. These mugs will then enjoy their respite from the hustle and bustle of Dana, Foss, or Roberts, until one day, they end up back at the source, or in a trash bin.
This last detail, unfortunately, is true and is even more disappointing than the general passivity with which some students have treated the portable mug program. Two weeks ago, Joe Klaus, associate director of dining services, had to send an e-mail to the custodians, asking them to sift through trash bins to look for discarded mugs, after he found out that students had been throwing the mugs out; hence some of the new transparent trash bags in place of black ones. And over the past few weeks, Foss has run out of portable mugs so quickly during meals that they are reverting back to the paper cups.
Be the first to comment on this story