HIGHLIGHTS:
- Customers visiting locations in the United States and Canada will be allowed to “use their own personal reusable cup
- Starbucks has opted to move away from single-use plastics in order to promote reusability
- By 2025, the company hopes to have started a “cultural revolution toward reusables by providing consumers with easy access to a personal or Starbucks-provided reusable cup for every visit
Customers visiting locations in the United States and Canada will be allowed to “use their own personal reusable cup, including in café, drive-thru, and mobile order and pay” by the end of 2023.
With sustainable everyday habits becoming more important around the world, Starbucks has chosen to do its part and join the discourse by eliminating single-use cups to reduce waste and encourage customers to use reusable cups.
The American coffee chain, which has locations in several countries, stated in a news release dated March 15, 2022 that it is “trying new technology” to help it “learn how to provide the greatest possible experiences” for partners and customers.
Hope to become “resource positive”
The company also hopes to become “resource positive,” according to the press release. Starbucks’ chief sustainability officer, Michael Kobori, says the company wants to “store more carbon than [it] emits, reduce waste, and save and restore more freshwater than we consume.”
“Through innovation, we will write our next chapter, enhance our beneficial effect on the earth, and boldly envision our shared future.”
Moving away from single-use plastics
Starbucks has opted to move away from single-use plastics in order to promote reusability, according to the statement. By 2025, the company hopes to have started a “cultural revolution toward reusables by providing consumers with easy access to a personal or Starbucks-provided reusable cup for every visit.”
Customers visiting locations in the United States and Canada will be allowed to “use their own personal reusable cup, including in café, drive-thru, and mobile order and pay” by the end of 2023.
The firm claims to be experimenting with a variety of reusable programmes and operating paradigms, including:
- Borrow A Cup:Customers will be able to order drinks in a special Starbucks reusable cup, which will be returned to the store, carefully cleaned, and then reused by other Starbucks customers.
- 100% Reusable Operating Models: This allows for the complete elimination of single-use cups in favour of reusables, personal cups, or for-here-ware.
- Personal Cups and For-Here-Ware: This is to encourage customers to bring their own cup to Starbucks for-here-ware as the “default sit-and-stay experience”.
