Starbucks look to recycle billions of cups
Starbucks invited “30 cup, cupstock and coating manufacturers, recyclers, waste managers and university researchers to Seattle” to talk about recyclable cups. Each year, coffee drinkers dispose of more 200 billion paper coffee cups, and 3 billion of them come from Starbucks.
Ben Packard, Starbucks vice president of Global Responsibility, wants to change that and make sure that all the companies cups are easily recyclable by 2012.
Topics that were addressed at the cup summit:
- The fact that many of Starbucks’ cups are already recyclable but often aren’t
- How cups can be collected and turned into pizza boxes within three days
- Sorting recyclable cups from waste that isn’t meant to be recycled
- Future cold cup recycling opportunities
Summit participants agreed that it's time to develop a new "standard" disposable cup in the industry that takes into consideration the container's end of life.
It’s good that as a corporation, Starbucks sees its responsibilities on this issue. I think that consumers need to see their responsibility on this issue too though.
This is fantastic news and will help to support UK operators who are collecting and recycling paper cups, but need more people to buy in to this concept.
The larger coffee chains have the volumes to make this happen, and hearing that Starbucks is buying into recycling can be great help.
In our premises, there are now toilet rolls manufactured from fibres recovered from paper cups, and we need to see more products being made from recycled fibres.
For more information on our views, see the Environmental Information page.
The larger coffee chains have the volumes to make this happen, and hearing that Starbucks is buying into recycling can be great help.
In our premises, there are now toilet rolls manufactured from fibres recovered from paper cups, and we need to see more products being made from recycled fibres.
For more information on our views, see the Environmental Information page.