Bring your own mug with you to Starbucks, it could save the planet. In our stubbornly single-use-centered society, making small steps to reduce our waste makes a difference. Americans drink a lot of coffee; more than 47% of Americans buy coffee at least once per week and 16% buy coffee more than 4 times per week, according to a poll by Statistica. As the majority of coffee shops serve coffee in disposable cups, our country’s coffee habit produces a staggering amount of waste. The Environmental Center at the University of Colorado Boulder reports that an estimated 25 billion paper cups end up in the landfill each year. The disposable-cup status quo places an unnecessary and unsustainable burden on the environment, and the solution is sitting in your kitchen cabinet.

For the past few years, the Environmental Center has been running a “lug your mug” campaign urging students and staff to bring their own mug to school. In the spirit of breaking from the disposable mentality, those who participate are awarded with a selection of hot drinks free of charge. If more people made the choice to take their own mug with them when they went to coffee shops, there would be notable benefits, both for individual coffee connoisseurs and for the environment. Free coffee aside, there are other significant benefits to supplying your own sipping device.

Bringing your own coffee mug can initiate meaningful change within coffee shop culture. Markets respond to the preferences of customers and companies that align with the interests of customers are often more successful. Just like how Patagonia embraced sustainability as a core value to better align with its eco-conscious consumer base, coffee shops will adjust to support their waste-conscious customers if enough people choose to reuse.

Furthermore, bringing your own coffee mug is a great way to connect with people if you want to advocate for a healthier planet. Lugging your mug creates an exceptional opportunity to initiate conversations and drop some sustainable-choice wisdom. Besides, I can guarantee your coffee will taste better out of that tumbler repping your favorite sports team, the beautifully painted mug you picked up on your trip to Zion National Park, or that not so beautifully painted mug that your kid gifted you for your birthday. Why drink from a boring plastic cup when you could sip your latte from a deeply personal vessel?

Even if the environment isn’t a primary reason for you, using your own mug is simply better. Many coffee shops offer discounts if you bring a coffee mug from home. For instance, Trident Coffee Shop in Boulder takes 25 cents off your purchase when you bring your own mug.

Though there may be concerns about inconvenience to customers, bringing your own mug may be easier than you thought it would be. If you’re already busy and remembering your mug seems like an extra step in your already crazy schedule, I have a suggestion for you: Don’t worry about bringing your mug every time. Just bring it when you can. If you get coffee every day, and bring your mug once a week, that’s still 52 cups you’re diverting from the landfill each year — that’s significant!

So commit to making the coffee cup change up! Contribute to positive environmental change, improve your coffee experience and save some money while you’re at it. If we band together in implementing small changes, we can reshape the ways our culture thinks of and handles waste. By doing this, we can make a difference and help to shape a better, less wasteful future for all.

Quinn Adams lives in Boulder.