“I’ve been missing for a while: my bright yellow mug with bananas on it.”
The new government rules that ban disposable cups at work as of January 1 have caused small office suffering in coffee corners in perhaps the whole of the Netherlands in the past month. The alternatives to the familiar disposable cardboard with a plastic layer are according to the responsible Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management: from now on, use washable mugs at the office or bring your own coffee mug to work.
That took some getting used to at first. Because at the coffee machine or the dishwasher in the office, many cupless colleagues who absolutely need coffee will notice a nice mug from a colleague and then think: catch up, it’s winter. And so people lose their own mug or expensive thermo cup. Also at the editorial offices of NRC.
Mug seeker emails
This led to a flood of internal emails from mug seekers: “Has anyone seen my mug?” the email circus began. “Light green, plastic, usually in my mailbox on the second floor, but of course I may have left it somewhere.” It was followed by: “I am a titanium camping mug from the brand SnowPeak lost. Last time I saw it it had a folding handle and contained cappuccino.” The next colleague added: “Let me take this opportunity to report my cow mug as missing. Can be recognized by the black and white spots.” It was trumped by someone who was missing two mugs, one with the logo of an airline and one of a French trade union: “To be returned anonymously in the dishwasher on the first floor.”
‘Possession is theft’
Some colleagues sulkily demanded a stop to those mug search emails. There was a plea (in vain) for a separate office mug search group on social media, such as Slack. It was also suggested that all mugs in the office should become the property of the collective, that is, of everyone – after all, possession is theft. The latter plan met with little support. Then the sulking stopped, except for two encouraging emails: the cow mug had been found (in a cupboard on the third floor) and also a nrc.nextmug was above water.