Where to Hang Out Without Hanging Ourselves

Taking a slightly different tack here, to look at the garbage I generate when I’m out and about in good ol’ Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA. Since I use wifi frequently (as do increasing legions of folks), I’ll look at some of the wifi hang-out spots. Perhaps you can use my ratings to think about places you frequent.

Barnes & Noble Café: This has been a favorite, especially since they started encouraging “for here” customers to use real mugs instead of trash to hold their coffee/whatever. Snacks and sandwiches are inconsistently served on either a real plate (hurrah!) or the horrifying Styrofoam alternative (BOO!), with either real silverware (yea!) or plastic (YUCK). If you take your drink to go (or don’t ask for a real mug), you will get a paper cup with a paper sleeve which could be recycled, although you will have to take it with you somewhere else to do that; there is no recycling receptacle. They will always put the damn, nonrecyclable plastic top on the paper cup. If you ask them not to, you will REALLY have to vigorously insist. The customer is not right about this, apparently—and I can only get them to leave off the top by really insisting and getting past the “I’ll get in trouble” and “Okay, but you can’t tell ANYbody!” objections from the staff. Apparently, there is some draconian policy that to-go hot drink cups (whether you are taking them “to go” or not) must come with this eternally-polluting piece of plastic attached. Cold drinks (the famous Frappucinos, for example) are in a clear #2 plastic cup with lid (recyclable, at least)—but also come with a straw, which I can’t find out whether is recyclable or not. Drinking through a straw is a bad idea, anyway—gives you gas and bloating—so skip the straw. For that matter, skip that 2000 calorie giant dose of sugar, save yourself five bucks and future diabetes! GQ (Garbage Quotient): Eco-C; could improve to a B if they would stop the weird insistence on the plastic lids and get completely consistent about real plates and silverware instead of Styrofoam and plastic.

Books-a-Million: At last check, their wifi was not free. They also have literally nothing you would actually want to eat there, their coffee is ~eh~ and their chai is not worth it. So why do we care about their garbage quotient? Moving on. . .

Hastings: I don’t know why, but their coffee is the best in town to me (of course, I’m not a big coffee drinker, so the taste I’m liking there might really turn off the real coffee fan, I don’t know). Their chai is from a powdered mix and is absolutely horrid. Nothing there worth eating either, and the atmosphere is really not conducive to staying very long, but the wifi is free. If you do try the coffee, you’ll get a cardboard cup (okay) with a fancy plastic lid with a little plastic “door” you can slide open and closed. Woohoo! Even MORE plastic! That’s gotta be good, right? GQ: Nevermind.

San Francisco Bread Company: If you buy a hot drink here, it will come in a Styrofoam cup. I’ve gotten to the point where Styrofoam almost makes me physically ill. Just the feel of it makes my skin crawl. If you eat in, you’ll get food on real plates with real silverware (THANK you!), always associated with paper of various sorts, which can be recycled if you collect it all up at the end of the meal and take it with you, although some things (like salads, where they give you dressing on the side in a plastic container with lid) come with garbage. For some reason, though, if you get just a dessert (like a piece of cheesecake), it will come on the dreaded STYROFOAM plate with a PLASTIC fork. Why is this, when we KNOW they have real plates and forks? It is a mystery. Cold drink cups can be recycled, again if you are willing to take them with you. GQ: Eco-C-minus; could improve if they served their desserts with the real dinnerware we know they have, and provided separate containers for all the paper and the recyclable plastic. They already ask their customers to sort the real plates and silverware from the trays and the trash; why not go just a little further and implode that trash load; make the world a BETTER place for “San Fran’s” having been in it?

Seattle Grind Café: Trying this place for the first time as I type this. Paper cup and sleeve for the hot drinks, the damnable plastic lid again. Muffin served on the heinous Styrofoam plate, but with a real fork (how does THAT make sense???). The muffin had a paper wrapper I will take with me to recycle, along with the cup & sleeve, and the napkin. But the dang plastic lid! Argh! Also, their internet connection would not work for me, and their wall “art” looks like it crawled out of a late-1960’s, early-1970’s nightmare. Not strictly trash-related, but not a great attraction, either (although some of it looks like it could be repurposed industrial garbage, so that could be a plus in that respect!). GQ: Eco-D (benefit-of-the-doubt bonus points for recycling trash as art).

Tropical Smoothie Café: To their credit, you CAN buy (yes, BUY) a giant, reusable plastic cup from them, and if you take it home, clean it, and remember to bring it back every time you go there, they will use that to put your smoothie in—instead of the GIANT STYROFOAM (AAAAAUUUUUUGH!) cup from hell they otherwise use. I don’t even like to think of the Mississippi-River-flow of Styrofoam (not to mention plastic lids and straws) coming out of that place every day; it makes me want to puke. All their food comes with plenty of trash, too. And I like the occasional dose of Reggae, but more than about half an hour of constant Reggae music will eventually make me nuts. I don’t know how the staff stays out of the looney-bin. GQ: Eco-FAIL. Start using biodegradable cups for the smoothies to begin the crawl up to a passing grade. Otherwise, you FAIL AT LIFE. You are the Gulf Oil Spill of Jonesboro wifi hang-out spots.

Feel free to share your own ratings of your local wifi spots in the comments!