Thursday, August 16, 2012

Been a while...

Man I suck at blogging!  I'm going to try to blog at least once a week...sorry about the lack of content everyone!

This shot was sent by Charlene Hodder

Sunday, May 27, 2012

#Cleanupfred Thanks You!


Man it's been a few weeks since I last blogged!  Even though we had terrible weather, #cleanupfred was still a lot of fun!  We had roughly 70 - 80 people show up and gathered around 150 bags of garbage!  20 of those bags were coffee cups!

Thanks to everyone who came out!





Sunday, April 8, 2012

#Cleanupfred



The Earth Day event is beginning to shape up.  I was recently awarded the Feelsgood.ca grant of the month so now I have the resources needed to put on a fun event on Earth Day.  I'm hoping to put together  a day of fun which includes a free BBQ, live music and possibly guest speakers.  Tim Horton's has agreed to sponsor the event by providing rubber gloves, garbage bags, tshirts, coffee and donuts.

I'm doing my best to find other Frederictonians who would like to help clean some "zones" that have been laid out on this google map.  I'm also encouraging people to join the #cleanupfred facebook page.  It would be great to start a social media campaign using the hashtag #cleanupfred.

I would love to see people shooting pictures of coffee cups and fast food garbage they find in the streets leading up to the event.  Photos can be tweeted with the hashtag #cleanupfred and #fredericton tags.  Shots of garbage can also be uploaded to the #cleanupfred facebook page.

Special thanks to Feelsgood.ca , Picaroons, and Tim Horton's for helping put this event on.

Let's get this social media campaign off the ground :)

(see what I did there?)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Earth Day Cleanup in Fredericton!



SO I've been working on organizing an Earth Day cleanup here in Fredericton April 22nd and so far I have 29 people interested.  The idea is to pickup garbage in zones that I have created on this google map.  Each zone will either be a shopping center parking lot, public park or school zone.  Teams will be made up of at least 3 people and I would encourage each team to sign up to clean 2 or 3 zones.  I'm hoping that each team will also have a photographer to document every piece of trash fast food trash.

It would be great to compare the ratio of coffee cup finds to fast food finds to "other" types of trash that we collect.

I will be adding more information about the event here on this blog as well as on the facebook event page.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Vegware Cup Coffee Test - Results

So the results are in.  Vegware makes some great organic and compostable coffee cups, however one style of cup did not pass my test.  It was only a matter of about 4 hours when I noticed the first leak.

Oddly enough, the brown cup in the video has had coffee in it for 2 weeks.  There was absolutely no sign of leakage or breakdown at all!  It's actually quite impressive to see a cup so strong that it keeps stinky coffee in it leak free for 2 weeks!



Perhaps I should test some Tim Horton's and McCafe tests just to be fair.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Any Roll Up The Rim Winners?

So has anyone won any free coffees, donuts or big screen TVs yet?





{EAV:ea0bc5124b327e56}

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Vegware's Coffee Lids Are The World's First Compostable Lid!


I just spoke with a very friendly representative from Vegware who is interested in my project.  I'm hoping that I can convince at least 1 coffee shop to consider using Vegware's compostable coffee cups and lids.

Brace Yourselves, Roll Up The Rim Is Coming

Created by Karen Furlotte

So as mentioned in my previous post, I found 2 Roll Up The Rim cups yesterday, which is sad because the campaign JUST started that morning.  I'm keeping a separate category for RUTR cup finds over the next few weeks.

Monday, February 20, 2012

February Totals So Far

Wilmont Ally

It's that time of year again, Canadian Christmas.  Roll Up The Rim is back and the internets are buzzing up a storm!  Canadians LOVE Roll Up The Rim.  And why wouldn't you be excited?  Tim Horton's is giving away 40 Toyota Camry Hybrids, 100 Panasonic 3D Viera Tvs, Coleman Camp Gear, 5000 Panasonic Lumix cameras, and 47,000,000 DONUTS!!!

In fact, the first words I heard anyone speak today was about Roll Up The Rim!  I was waiting for my bus and a guy got out of his truck and yelled "It's Rim Rollin time again!".  At least, I assume he meant Roll Up The Rim.

While I was on the bus on the way to work, I saw my first RUTR cup, but I didn't make the bus stop so I could pick it up.  It was about 8:30 am ... and I'm betting the Tim Horton's opens at 6:00 am.  So within 2 and a half hours of the campaign starting, I saw a discarded RUTR cup.

Here are February's totals thus far:

Tim Horton's 66
McCafe 5
Other 8
Roll Up The Rim 2
Reids 4
Styrofoam 1
Timothy's 1

February total 87

*  36 of those cups were found in parking lots on prospect and they were mostly Tim Horton cups.

Roll Up The Rim is Back

The campaign just started today and I saw my first red RUTR cup on the sidewalk downtown Fredericton.  I couldn't grab it because I was driving by on the bus.

*sigh*

I will be on the lookout for you Timmy cups.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Vegware Coffee Cup Water Test - 1 week later


So after 1 week, water remains in each cup (except for the small one because it either evaporated or the cats drank it)



So I'm quite positive that the cup that I filled with coffee was not leaking but rather, I spilt some on the exterior of the cup.

Let's see how long coffee will live in a vegware cup before it leaks.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Vegware Coffee Cup Test: Hour 30

So far there have been zero leaks with Vegware's cups I've tested with water.  These cups have kept water for over 30 hours now with no sign of leakage or breakdown at all.  Perhaps I will have different results with coffee but I'm going to give these water filled cups some more time.


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Vegware Cup Test


I decided to test a few Vegware cups out to see how long they will last without leaking the contents of each cup.  I used boiling water for this test.  Stay tuned for follow up videos.





Vegware is based out of Edinburgh, Scotland and make all sorts of compostable take out containers. 

vegware.com

How Paper Cups Are Made

These are not recyclable.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Vegware Coffee Cup Samples Arrived Today!


So giant package arrived from Purolator today.  It was samples of a bunch of Vegware coffee cups! 
I connected with @vegware and asked them for a sample and 1 week later, voila! 



These cups are compostable and will begin to break down in 8 - 12 weeks.  The glue that holds the cup together and lines it to keep the content warm is made of organic materials rather than oil based resources. 


I've heard arguments against using these types of cups ranging from prices being too high, to cups falling apart within hours, but I wanted to check them out for myself.

I am going to test some of these cups out to see how long it can keep a coffee without falling apart.

For more info on Vegware products:  







Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Best Cup of Coffee I've Ever Had

So I was going through the twitters and stumbled upon this tweet by @lonelyplanet :

@lonelyplanet
Where have you had the best coffee? Here's our top 10:   

It made me think of the best cup of coffee I've ever had with my brother.


My brother shot this after we toured the Rio Tempisque, Costa Rica.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Cup Hunt!


A friend and I found 36 cups in about 1 hour and 15 minutes!


This is the map of today's finds

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Updated Map of Found Cups




Discarded Comfort January Total: 71 Found Coffee Cups

So the last 2 weeks have been weak.  I was sick for a few days and it snowed twice (which covers the cups) so I didn't collect as many as I had intended. Those are my excuses for a low turn out...I will do better next month I swear!

I'm going on a coffee cup hunt with a friend or two this weekend.  If anyone would like to join Sunday let me know.

Week 3 & 4 Total:

Tim Horton's 17
McDonald's 2
Other 2
Subway 1 (I didn't know Subway sold coffee)



January Total:

Tim Horton's 45
Other 11
McCafe 4
Second Cup 3
Irving 1
Subway 1
Timothy's 1

January 2012 Total: 71


And that's a large jar of peanut butter!


Friday, January 27, 2012

Monday, January 23, 2012

Cuppow Lids Turn Mason Jars Into Travel Mugs


Cuppow!
Such a neat idea.  These are the types of innovations which will hopefully discourage people from using paper cups.  



CUPPOW! from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.



via / cuppow.com

Discarded Comfort Fan Shot of the Week

I'm going to start showcasing some photographs that users have sent in via the interwebs.  
Please submit your photos either on the facebook or the tumblr.

Best Shot of the Week:


Submitted by Jess in Dartmouth, NS via facebook fan page.


Runners up:


Kim in Fredericton, NB 


 Troy in Fredericton, NB via Facebook


Chantel in Fredericton, NB via Facebook 

New Discarded Comfort (hash)tag #busstop

  I'm going to tag all cups found at a bus stop with #busstop.  
I think I will be finding more uses for tags.


Friday, January 20, 2012

Crispins Doing It Right

So this morning I discovered that Crispins at King's Place charges you for a small coffee if you fill up a travel mug.  When I went to pay for my coffee I said "I think this would be a large".  The owner eyeballed my travel mug and said, "No, we charge you for a small since you're not using a cup".  I definitely appreciated it, even though I don't know what the difference in price is (I should really know these things!)

Kudos Crispins!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Fredericton's Bus Stops Need Garbage Cans

I'm starting to notice more and more discarded coffee cups around bus stops.  I realize that collecting garbage at every bus stop could be a challenge for the city, however lots of trash is left at bus stops, especially the ones with shelters.  Hopefully this project can show the city that this is becoming a big problem.





Slide show of all Discarded Comfort shots tagged as "Busstop"


Monday, January 16, 2012

Week 2 Coverage - CBC discusses McDonald's drive thru policies

So CBC has really been pushing this issue on the radio all last week:



There are now 215 fans of the Discarded Comfort Facebook fanpage



Week 2 Cup Tally

Tim Horton's: 18
Other: 3
McDonald's: 1

 Week 2 Total: 22
2012 Total: 43

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Reddit AMA Went Well



I decided to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit the other day regarding the project.  I got a few interesting questions and responses.  I am going to begin spreading word of my project via social media in the next couple of weeks.  I aim to connect with as many people as possible, hoping that I can encourage fans of the project to submit their own photographs to the facebook fan page.


Monday, January 9, 2012

Week 1 Cup Finds


Shot of the week by Fan Page Member Charley Baird


Tim Horton's 10
"Other" 5
Second Cup 3
Timothy's 1
Irving 1
McCafe 1

Total 21



Sunday, January 8, 2012

Discarded Comfort Project Underway




So this has been a very productive week for this project!  

Just to highlight:


Discarded Comfort doc
CBC - original article
Maritime Noon Interviews a Tim Horton's Representative
Tim Horton’s Response

Disposable Cup Feedback Jan 9th, 2012 @ 41:19


There has been so much positive feedback left in the comment sections of the CBC articles which is very encouraging!  Lots of ideas have been spawning from the CBC comments and I'm hoping that we can communicate some interesting solutions to Tim Hortons and other coffee vendors out there.  If you have any ideas of your own, feel free to post them in the comments section below.


Thursday, January 5, 2012

Discarded Comfort CBC Press Coverage


So the CBC interviewed me this morning and ran this article.  This is all so exciting!  It's great to see new fans on the facebook Discarded Comfort page.

Here's the updated map for 2012