Starbucks plans to phase out its single-use coffee cups

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) wants you to bring your own cup to its coffee shops — eventually.

The Seattle-based coffee giant, which goes through billions of single-use cups each year, has pledged to cut its global waste by 50% by 2030. Starbucks announced Tuesday customers will be able to bring their own reusable cups to all coffee shops in the U.S. and Canada in the next year.

As part of that initiative, Starbucks has been testing borrow-a-cup programs across the world. Customers pay a deposit to for a cup they can bring back for refills. Baristas in Seattle piloted the first such program last year.

"Our goal is to make it easy for many customers around the world to use a personal or Starbucks-provided reusable cup for every visit, whether ordering in the cafe, in the drive-thru, or even mobile order and pay," Chief Marketing Officer Brady Brewer said during the company's annual shareholder meeting Wednesday. "We want our customers to be excited to choose reusables ever time."

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/03/17/starbucks-wants-to-phase-out-its-single-use-cups.html

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Americans do something inconvenient?

Skeptical. But there are of course collapsible cups for reuse. Fit in a pocket. Plastic or stainless. Might become a thing.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. I like that idea.

On the days I go to my program the van driver often stops at wawa. I have my big metal reusable cup. I bring it with me everytime I get coffee whereever I can use it.. I also carry a nice steel water bottle with me too.
Once you get used to carrying it with you its no big deal.

[hlthe2b]

3. Complicated to enact. Like how do they ensure those cups are clean and not introducing food-borne

pathogens--even to the cup owner? How do they ensure the size of the cup is compatible with the size of the drink ordered? Lots of ceramic cups will need much larger spaces at the pickup area--easily accomplished, BUT, I see a lot of broken glass in the future.

I think the idea is great. But, I suspect there will be a bit of a painful "roll-out." Hell, just getting consumers to bring their own reusable grocery bags is hard enough.

I speak to this as one who has used reusable cups, bottles, thermos-type storage containers for decades now, but not all are going to be so adaptable.

[Native]

4. Starbucks was allowing customers to use their own cups before the pandemic and only stopped it when

Covid hit. I saw loads of people using their own mugs.