At what point do you become too important to re-use

I have been noticing an interesting trend with the deteriorating economy and that's the increased use of disposables. I posted this query on my facebook status and got some interesting responses, so I'll put it here. Are you ever too important to use resusables. At my last two companies, I've noticed that individuals increasingly use disposable take away containers even if they are not taking it away. The same happens with disposable coffee cups by people each and every day.

When I ask people why they do this, the answer inevitably is that they are soooooooo busy. But really how much time does it take to wash a single coffee cup. A friend of mine at his company (highly successful Venture Capital firm) they basically made sure that reusable mugs were the default option.

Speaking of default options, what if instead of offering discounts for bringing your own mug you paid for using one. For instance Starbucks charges $1.65 for a cup of coffee, and gives a $0.10 discount for using your own cup. Why not charge $1.55 for a cup of coffee and another $0.10 for getting a disposable cup. The net economic effect would be the same from an economists point of view (same result) but the framing would be different and people do notice.

So much for rationality, let's start changing defaults.