Posted on 09/15/2023 11:42:27 AM PDT by algore
Bethany Patton steps up to the counter and places her pink mug into a shoebox-sized dishwasher. It spins. It whirs. Water splashes inside. After 90 seconds, the door opens and steam emerges. A barista grabs the mug, dries it and prepares Patton’s order — a 16-ounce Starbucks double espresso on ice.
For bringing her own cup, Patton gets $1 off her drink.
“Saving the environment is important and all, but I probably come here more in knowing that I’m going to get a dollar off,” says Patton, 27, a cancer researcher at Arizona State University. Two friends who came on the afternoon coffee run nod as they hold the cups that they, too, brought along.
Just as noteworthy as what they’re carrying is what they are not: the disposable Starbucks cup, an icon in a world where the word is overused.
For a generation and more, it has been a cornerstone of consumer society, first in the United States and then globally — the throwaway cup with the emerald logo depicting a longhaired siren with locks like ocean waves. Ubiquitous to the point of being an accessory, it has carried a message: I am drinking the world’s most recognizable coffee brand.
Now, in an era where concern for sustainability can be good business, the Starbucks disposable cup may be on its way to extinction thanks to an unlikely force: Starbucks itself.
CONVENIENCE COLLIDES WITH VIRTUE
By 2030, Starbucks wants to move away completely from disposable cups, which represent big portions of the company’s overall waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
The stated reason is that it’s the right thing to do for the environment, and Starbucks has a history of lofty sustainability goals around various aspects of their global operations. Some have been met, such as new stores being certified for energy efficiency; others have been revised or scrapped entirely. For example, in 2008 the company said that by 2015 it wanted 100% of its cups to be recyclable or reusable. Today, that’s still a long way away.
Today’s drive to overhaul the cup comes with an obvious business imperative. Producing disposable products like cups creates greenhouse gas emissions, which warm the planet and lead to extreme weather events and other manifestations of climate change. That goes against customers’ increasing expectations for companies to be part of the solution to climate change.
Still, while customers want companies to be environmentally conscious, that doesn’t mean they’re willing to give up convenience. And there’s this: Could eliminating the millions of paper and plastic cups used each year hurt Starbucks?
After all, those cups, in the hands of customers, are advertising — a market penetration that makes Starbucks feel ubiquitous
Good grief. There’s that “citing sustainability” bologna again!
Bringing germs into the Starbucks machines ... all while the left is telling us covid foreva
Starbucks has cups , I don’t know I’ve never been there
First place, whatever deal star bx has going on w the health dept it is sketchy. You can’t be putting a customer used cup under the community coffee nozzle
What is the carbon footprint of the micro dishwasher that they use? And how does that carbon footprint compare with the carbon footprint of the Disposable cups?
What about the erosion of sales that can happen, if people go in Starbucks and are told they needed to bring their own cup ,and then they leave because they didn’t bring a cup?
Beat me to it. A mini dishwasher ride for every individual cup seems like it might have a bigger impact than a paper cup.
Gonna put a dent in Pactive Evergreen. Corsicana company that makes the disposable cups.
Corsicana is not their only plant. It’s gonna hurt regardless.
Next, they will introduce the rent-a-cup for those that can’t seem to remember to bring their cups from home.
They might get into the rental mug business.
If you didn’t bring your own cup from home they will ask you to pay for a deposit on a cup, and then you get the deposit back when you bring the cup back to Starbucks.
If they really want to do away with disposable cups entirely they will have to come up with some sort of system like this. Otherwise cope with the erosion of sales from people who didn’t bring a cup from home.
That’d be hilarious...
Effin’ weirdos.
Let’s see. I like Starbucks, but I don’t go there enough to justify having a reusable Starbucks cup. For the foreseeable future, I will be using a disposable cup for my once or twice annual visits to Starbucks.
The dollar saved by bringing my own cup is not much of an incentive. A latte at Starbucks costs over $4, but a Keurig pod only costs about 50 cents. So I save at least $3.50 by making my own coffee.
Yes ... you can.
they should just pour it into their hands
or a pocket or pocketbook
bring in a cup with discrete holes in the bottom
let the merriment ensue
Any place that has buffet serve will not allow customers to bring plates or cups up for refills. Starbucks is the only place I’ve seen. And it grosses me out. The servers should not be handling customers used plates, utensils nor cups. Period.
Inexpensive plastic cup with 25ç deposit.... people will use the cups and then bring a week’s worth for the $1.25.
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