How Starbucks Can Actually Recycle All Those Coffee Cups

Starbucks recently set a hefty goal for itself: Double the recycled content (currently only 10%), recyclability and compostability of cups and packaging by 2022.

Starbucks has also committed to eliminating more than 1 billion straws a year by phasing out plastic straws from all stores globally by 2020.

Oh but how will we ever survive without all those straws you might ask?

Instead of your typical straw-requiring beverage container, you’ll get a RECYCLABLE strawless lid, and non-plastic straws are available as needed for blended beverages and such.

Hot beverage cups are hard to recycle because they have a plastic lining so the paper doesn’t get soggy or leak.

Contrary to popular belief, coffee cups actually can be recycled.

It’s just that most recycling facilities aren’t equipped to separate the paper from the plastic lining.

Starbucks found a facility that could recycle its coffee cups in Wisconsin, and it recycled 25,000 of them last year.

Those cups went full circle and were recycled into new Starbucks cups.

It’s no more expensive to recycle paper cups than other types of paper, but facilities have a hard time running efficiently due to the unpredictability of incoming quantities.

Another barrier is the variability of local recycling systems.

Progressive cities like San Francisco, Denver, and New York City have begun to recycle paper coffee cups, but they are rare finds.

Paper brokers are usually hesitant to accept recycled paper bales that have coffee cups in them because of possible contamination, but the high standards of these few mills that take paper cups are helping to change that.

Starbucks hopes its pilot test can convince more paper mills across the U.S. to accept paper cups in their recycling streams. Choosing to try a different approach in London, Starbucks stores there charged an extra 7 cents should you choose a disposable cup instead of bringing a reusable one.

The experiment took place across 35 Starbucks locations in London for a total of three months, with the added tweak of offering ceramic mugs for people who don’t get it to-go (What a crazy idea!). In the U.K., only one out of every 400 paper cups is recycled, and half a million more are littered on the ground every single day.

Despite offering a 10 cent discount for people who bring reusable cups for the past 20 years, only 1.8% of customers actually do it.

Yikes. We can do better.

As we see time and time again, most people won’t change their behavior until money is involved, but studies have shown that the added fee is more effective than a discount.

Last time I went to Starbucks, I looked at the bin and was really confused after I remembered hearing Starbucks was recycling its own cups.

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The image on the left was taken by someone else at an unidentified Starbucks, while the one on the right was taken at my local Starbucks. See any differences??

Proper labeling is everything when it comes to recycling because the standards change from city to city, and most people don’t know what can and cannot be properly recycled because there are so many different variables. An unclear system just leads to some recyclables being contaminated by trash and others ending up wasted in the landfill.

The company also uses this third image on its page about greener cups and packaging, which is kind of a slap in the face. It makes it look like they encourage consumers to recycle cups in store bins that look just like that, despite images of real bins in stores saying that you cannot recycle paper cups.

If Starbucks could have a three-part waste bin at each location, with one bin dedicated to hot cups, it could provide a steady stream of the paper cups to mills that can actually recycle them. C’mon Starbucks, you can do it!

I mean, if the coffee giant doesn’t do it, who will?

So, don’t forget your reusable cups, and make sure to take notice of inefficient waste bins and say something!

Happy sustainable sippin’!

S.