Hey, Starbucks! Recycle Your Cups!

The easiest thing (4.00 / 3)

we can do to stop this is to make our own coffee at home and drink from ceramic or stainless steel cups.

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by: Ellinorianne @ Tue May 26, 2009 at 15:31:12 PM UTC

my idea (4.00 / 3)

starbucks (and ALL coffee companies) needs to slowly phase out paper cups and start training people to carry around reusable mugs. you get the coffee cheaper (say, less than $1 for a small) and if you forgot your mug, once paper has been phased out, you have to buy a new mug for like $5. people will eventually learn not to forget their mug for coffee. it would be a HUGE change in habit but not unlike grocery stores phasing out plastic bags. hasn't happened yet in the US on a large scale, but there are many places in Europe where you can't get plastic anymore, only reusable bags. So ifyou forget yours, you either skip getting a bag or have to buy another.  

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by: Emily Best @ Tue May 26, 2009 at 15:47:21 PM UTC

Or places like Starbucks could hand out mugs with (4.00 / 2)

a hefty deposit on them. Turn in your dirty old mug from yesterday and you'll get the money back or not be charged the deposit on today's cuppa.

I wish I knew half what the flock of them know
Of where all the berries and other things grow,
Cranberries in bogs and raspberries on top
Of the boulder-strewn mountain, and when they will crop.
--"Blueberries" by Robert Frost

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by: wide eyed lib @ Tue May 26, 2009 at 16:17:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Starbuck's ban on reusable mug (4.00 / 1)

Just last September, Starbucks in Seattle (Westlake) told me they would not serve me coffee in my reusable mug, because it has a Tully's label on it.  Instead, they told me I would have to take the drink in a paper Starbucks cup, and then I could pour it into my reusable mug, and toss out the paper cup there at the counter.

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by: josebrwn @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 15:38:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

In-house mugs (4.00 / 2)

Something I think Starbucks really needs to do is encourage the use of their mugs for people who sit down and drink in the cafe - like most "real" cafes and restaurants do.   I believe most if not all Starbucks will lend you a mug if you are drinking "in house" and if they have some clean ones ready (right?) but I've never been to a Starbucks in the US where they ask you if you are drinking in or taking out.  They just always give you a paper cup by default.  (In London however they did ask and offer me a mug)

I don't think it's realistic for them to completely stop the paper cups and not sell to people who don't have their own cup (or who don't want to pay $5+ for a new mug).  If I'm a tourist traveling trans-atlantic to London am I going to bring a mug with me?  Encourage me to sit down and drink and give me a real mug.  Or stop giving discounts for people who have their own mug and charge extra for people who require a paper cup.  And do their best to make the paper cups they do have to use have less of an impact on the environment.

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by: ronmichael @ Fri May 29, 2009 at 15:27:27 PM UTC