By Bernie Bell

When did consuming large cups of takeaway coffee become part of our daily need for sustenance? It’s just a fashion, but a fashion that is messing up our world.

A person gets up, has their breakfast, goes to work, maybe has a tea/coffee break mid-morning – and so they go through the working day.  Somewhere along the line, it became fashionable to ‘grab a coffee’ from a coffee bar, whilst ‘on the move’.  It’s presented as, and therefore perceived as being, cool, fashionable, whatever term you want to use, to be seen rushing about, clutching a giant plastic/paper cup in one hand, and a Smartphone in the other, often with headphones in your ears.

I believe it to also be because folk have to be ‘doing’ all the time, as they have to have some kind of noise going on all the time.  When waiting in a bus station, train station, airport, they can no longer sit and …wait – read, think, look about them, have a chat with someone. Maybe go to the station café for a cuppa.  That cuppa would have been served in a cup, a proper cup, which would then be washed up and used again.  Times past, I know, but – why not?

No, it has to be the giant takeaway cup. It is purely a fashion, and a fashion that fits with today’s hectic world.  Always ‘doing’, always some noise in your ears. The earphones in your ears, just mean that you’re missing out on the life that’s going on around you, and that’s your choice.  The take way, throw away paper/plastic cups, are causing problems which affect everyone.  And it’s not only in the cities – they turn up everywhere – here’s one that turned up on the beach just down from where we live – I like the irony of the stars on the disposable plastic cup.

The developing problem with litter caused by these cups, is entirely avoidable. Even when they are thrown away in a bin – they mostly can’t be re-cycled because it’s the wrong kind of plastic, and the paper is contaminated by coffee or tea.

So, I’m just asking folk to think about it – do you actually want/need that giant cup of coffee? Or are you being a slave to fashion?

Maybe try calming down a bit?  Maybe take waiting time, as time-out from the hectic world to …sit…..and……. be.   “Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits.”  Maybe try it?

I repeat, it’s a mindless fashion which will therefore probably pass, but meanwhile – a lot of un-re-cycle-able rubbish to be dealt with.

I realise that this is even more of a ramble, than some of my rants are, but…to me…it’s all just….so very….POINTLESS!

 Here’s a civilized way to have a hot beverage………