You know the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra? For some reason, I hear a lot more about the need for recycling than I do for reducing and reusing, but it seems like those first two are the real keys to conserving the environment.

In the case of coffee bags, reducing the amount you use would result in fewer bags that need to be dealt with as waste. Recycling is a good way to deal with the waste that is created when you buy a bag of coffee, but reusing seems to be the ideal sustainable choice when it comes to coffee bags.

So Dayle decided to save the bag her coffee came in for reuse with her next purchase. What's even more remarkable, she's organized enough to actually remember to take it with her the next time she went to Starbucks for her beans.

"Would you believe they refused to use that bag?" she said when she was telling me about her experience.

"Why?" I was shocked. I mean, they have to buy the bags, right? And that costs money. Why wouldn't they make a choice that was better for them financially as well as being better for the environment?

"I don't know. They weren't very clear about what their objection was."

Now most people would have given up at this point and just kept buying the coffee in a new bag every time and then (hopefully) recycling the bag. I would have started buying my coffee somewhere else, but then that's just me.

Dayle's different. She's determined. She's persuasive. So the next time she ran out of coffee, she showed back up at Starbucks with her empty bag and asked them to fill it for her.

Actually, first she asked for the manager. It turns out there had been some sort of misunderstanding the first time she had asked. Starbucks would be happy to fill her bag with the beans whenever they had enough stock that wasn't already bagged. And Caribou, where she also shops, is willing to do the same. 

If you like coffee and are committed to green practices, having the option to reuse your bag is a very good perk.