I am in complete agreement with the notion of using washable coffe mugs for in-store consumption, both aesthetically and green-mindedly. The customers' own travel mugs could be filled for take out consumption as well.

Consider this; however: I live in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina which is in the middle of an extreme drought. Raleigh's water supply is down to 90 days; Durham's is down to a mere 60 days worth or so. As part of their Level 4 (of 6) water conservation measures, restaurants are being mandated to serve their food on disposable plates and utensils, to minimize water use in dishwashing (The Duke University Medical Center -- a huge hospital-- switched to using paper plates in their cafeterias months ago). If you want water with your meal, you may need to purchase a bottle of water, rather than receive water from the tap (in a glass that would have to be washed). Your draft beer, will most likely come to you in a plastic cup, rather than a pint glass.

Really makes me wonder about balancing the equally worthy goals(within an extreme drought at least) of conserving water versus paper or petroleum (plastic).

Should the drought worsen to the point where even more extreme mandates were implemented, it is possible that restaurants, and other "non-essential" businesses would be shut down. I guess water, paper, plastic and petrol would all be conserved in that scenario, though at terrible cost (jobs).