This afternoon I talked to a friend of mine who manages a non-profit alternative arts venue. Folks who frequent the place expressed concern about the cups the venue uses for beer, soda, and other beverages, which aren’t environmentally friendly. Alternative cups, made of corn, cost nearly three times as much as plastic cups cost. This makes for an interesting ethical quandary: when a non-profit arts venue like this already operates on something of a shoestring budget as it is and, and it, like any other non-profit is struggling in today’s economy, how much priority should it put on making strict, environmentally concerned concessions when this might mean cutting the already low pay of staffers or in this case? What if it means potentially closing the door on some artists because it is no longer affordable to sustain low-profit yielding shows?

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