If you’re a coffee superstar, god help the barista if she serves you the wrong drink.

If you’re looking for some garam masala filmy-type of exchange (that undoubtedly took place), then no, neither is this about the coffee addict, nor the barista, nor the pow-wow.

It is about the wrong drink.

It went down the drain. No pun intended. Just like that.

The paper cup and plastic lid were mangled and chucked into the bin. Ostensibly, the wrath of the barista showed on them.

Hey, wait!

Was that how a 500-buck beverage supposed to be (mis)treated?

Apart from the economics of the coffee cuppa that obviously went down the drain, was this the waste management policy of this iconic “third place”?

Were all their sustainability measures and initiatives and case studies and what not that I’d spend hours reading mere words on paper? Is sustainability mere lip service?

Sitting on the sofa with my superstar as she sipped her swill, my senses were stimulated by sustainability.

What could this storied third place have done?

Could they have poured this “wrong-but-perfectly-normal coffee” back into a pitcher to reheat it for onward use?

Could they have developed institutional collection mechanisms for redistribution, similar to what is being done for excess food at restaurants and other bling events?

Could they have thought about creating a ‘seconds’ consumption opportunity in the spirit of knowing that consumption is circular?

Could they have better equipped their baristas to take and probably even recheck their customer’s orders?

Here is the real thing.

Almost two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day.

Considering even a highly conservative rate of 0.001% as “wrong coffee”, it amounts to 2 million cuppas down the drain (I know I’ve used that phrase the third time, but you get the drift…)

I sit on the sofa with my superstar and consider the impact of those 2 million cups on sustainability.

PS: We retrieved that lost paper cup from the bin, which has been put to dry in the sun. We are thinking of how to best use it.