While cruising the internet, I found a fantastic video on disposable paper cups. The clip is about 90 seconds long, and was made by a group of students at the University of Washington. Besides the collection of great pictures and impressive facts, the message is important - that using your own coffee cup can have an astounding environmental impact. It’s worth watching.
To those familiar with Sustainability Is Sexy, the message will be familiar. The video does; however, point out one interesting fact that SIS hasn’t touched - There are no recycling bins in Starbucks stores.
Why is this? After all, Starbucks is headquartered in Seattle, a caldera of eco-awareness. And the Emerald City doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to the environment. According to Sustainable Industries, Seattle broke records in 2006 when nearly 50% of it’s collected waste went to recycling plants. The city did it again in 2008, when Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels banned plastic water bottles from city events, and proposed a fee on all paper and plastic grocery bags (a first in the nation, according to the Seattle Times).
However, it’s doubtful that Starbucks suffers from evil corporation syndrome. In fact, the answer may lie more in the realm of common sense. Most of the garbage produced by Starbucks is in the form of disposable coffee cups - and those cups can’t be recycled. The 2.3 billion “to-go” cups used by Starbucks every year are made from paper and covered with a thin plastic coating during the manufacturing process. SIS research shows the polyethylene plastic keeps liquids from leaking - but also renders the cup unrecycleable.
Not to say that Starbucks isn’t a purveyor of the problem. Twenty years ago, a stop into a coffee house was a rare part of morning routines. It was the Starbucks expansion in the 1990’s that led to the coffee culture phenomenon. And that phenomenon led to the prevelance of disposable coffee cups. Today, there’s not only a Starbucks on every corner, but a disposable cup in every coffee drinker’s hand.
So what can be done about the 2.3 billion cups that land in our nation’s dumps every year? Some environmentalists advocate that Starbucks should do more to make a recycle friendly cup. According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, a manager of materials and engineer at SOLO Cup believes Starbucks isn’t doing all the can. “It’s all about the money; the question is whether they would be willing to pay for it”. Others advocate for a the coffee giant to make compostable cups, as does it’s regional rival, Tully’s Coffee.
However, both of these band-aid solutions avoid the real problem at hand - that our caffeine habits have become reliant on disposables. In the end, it’s up to the consumer. As an eco-friendly coffee drinker, you have the option to use your own reusable mug every day. Bring it! You’re efforts will save trees and energy, and reduce landfill garbage. If every coffee drinker used their own cup, there would be no need for recycle friendly disposables.
Who knows, maybe one day we could even rid Starbucks of the need for garbage cans too.
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There’s recycle bins in both stores I frequent.
but there was a university of victoria study that showed each ceramic cup would need to be used 1000 times before it would have a smaller CO2 footprint than a disposable. that’s using the SAME ceramic cup for 3 years straight. no one does that.
the takeaway from this article, for me anyway, is: don’t use “green cred” to rationalize another yuppie mug purchase — go back to your own danged cupboard (or a garage sale), find a mug that’s already done a thousand paper cups-worth of damage to the environment and start using that. you’ve probably got dozens hiding in your cabinets right now waiting to pay pack their CO2 debt!
Hi Brian,
You nailed it. We all have cups stashed in the back of our cabinets and pantries - all we have to do is use them!
One thought worth mentioning: I’ll bet ceramic cups in Starbucks are used more than just once a day. A cup might get used and washed and reused 10, 20, or more times. That could cut the 3 year mark down to 3 months, or less!
Nice Article
I read similar article also named gating Recycling and Starbucks | Sustainability Is Sexy Blog, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
[…] Starbuck’s Director Jim Hanna had come with a turn of luck. An SIS blog post titled “Investigating Recycling and Starbucks” had made its way into the coffee giant’s headquarters, and Jim had emailed me a response. […]
Have you seen those Annie’s Miso Soups? The containers that it comes in and you cook your noodles in is made from corn and is biodegradable. If they can make a corn based microwave proof biodegradable bowl & lid, why can’t they take that format and turn it into coffee cups to go?