Starbucks clients across hundreds of sites in the United States began their weeks with a surprise: loved Frappuccinos and iced espresso drinks that are offered in paper cups, not plastic.
The Seattle -based coffee company announced this week 580 of its stores It has begun to replace cold drinks – usually made of polypropylene, a type of solid plastic – with leafy versions lined with a thin layer of vibrant elastic for liquid resistance.
A spokesman for the company refused to submit a list of shops affected by change, but he said that Starbucks wanted to comply with the increasing number of local decrees that restrict the distribution of plastic materials with a single use. However, some invitation groups suggested that moving away from polypropylene plastic cups are more related to Starbucks sustainability – specifically, the company’s goal Select last year To make all filling and packaging, recyclable, or fertilizer by 2030.
It seems that the company’s continuous use of plastic, which cannot be reused or fertilized, depends on the idea that the cups can decrease technically in the recyclable category. “They are not, and that Starbucks now recognize it.
“This is a clear recognition that polypropylene cups are not recyclable,” or at least, not recycled in practice.
Dell’s conclusion, partly, is based on his score’s effort last year to find out what is happening for the plastic strokes when they are deposited in the recycling boxes in the chain. She and her partner, Susan Kaif – now with non -profit organizations behind plastic – Tracking devices put In the empty Starbucks cups throughout Southern California, the cups were dropped in the recycling boxes in the chain, and followed their movements after being captured by waste trucks. In almost all cases, followers went to the waste dump or a burnt instead of the recycling center.
Its achievement Repeated more broad by CBS NewsAnd that was tracked with the cups that decreased to 57 Starbucks recycling boxes throughout the country. Among the 36 of the followers who produced reliable information for a site, the other 32 of the sites that seemed to be waste payments, in -manuf or waste transmission stations. Only four in sites that seemed to be material recovery facilities, places used for plastic for recycling.
A Stepix spokesman told the company that the company’s polypropylene cups “recyclable in many sites where there is a local infrastructure.” But it is not clear where this infrastructure is found. Last year, CBS News reported that Starbucks was not able to tell one facility that converted plastic polypropylene cups into new products, KW Plastics in Alabama. A 2022 Greenpeace report I found that this facility has the ability to recycle only about 1 percent of the total polypropylene waste to the United States, and polypropylene waste from the states outside the southeast due to transportation costs may not be accepted. Another specific factor is the high pollution rate with other types of plastic or fluids and food residue. Polypropylene Polypillin from California, for example, has an average pollution rate 31 percent – much higher than 2 percent pollution The KW Plastics rate says it accepts.
KW Plastics did not respond to the GRI’s request for comment. (A group of industry told Grist that there are many polypropylene recycling facilities in the United States, but a medical review that he sent found contradiction To work.)
Looking at all 160,000 tons of plastic cups and paintings that were produced in the United States in 2018 – last year in which federal data is available – about 81 percent was burned and burned 19 percent in 2018. This leaves about 0 per cent. For recycling: a “small” amount, as the Environmental Protection Agency places.
Del said that the “embarrassing” outstanding investigations Starbucks and may have contributed to moving away from polypropylene cups. She said that the company knows that its customers “want to feel satisfied with their cold drink or hot drink cups.” “Consumers do not want to feel guilty.”
Lisa Ramsden, the major ocean activist at Greenpeace, said that Starbucks may also try to progress in California’s anti -plastic regulations, which are expected to prohibit certain types of plastic in the coming years, said Lisa Ramsen, the Greenpeace, said that Starbucks may also try to progress in California’s anti -plastic regulations, which are expected to prohibit certain types of plastic in the coming years. Indeed, the state It requires proof of recycling stickers Like a “arrows hunt” symbol everywhere, printed on polypropylene cups in Starbucks and announced on the recycling boxes in the store. Companies that want to name their products as recycling in Golden State Maintain written records Explain the reason for their belief that the recycling demand is correct, and to show that these products are widely collected and transformed into new products within California.
A Starbucks spokesman said that the company’s polypropylene cups are compatible with the applicable consumer protection laws and refused to provide additional evidence of the cup recycling. They said that recycling is “complex and difficult”, and that the company’s goal “is always to reduce the amount of plastic in our waste.”
Along with moving towards cracker cups, Starbucks, which is Mobility in a wave of changes Since the new CEO is trying to improve the company’s image and the bottom line, it says that it provides ceramic cups for dining inside the store and allowing more customers to order drinks in their reusable cups. As for the Plastic Starbucks, it is unclear whether the gradual disposal of more than more than 16,000 sites In the United States that is still providing them. Last April, the company said it was A single use plastic cups are re -designed To use up to 20 percent of plastic – a step that it is claimed to “keep more than 13.5 million pounds of plastic from waste burials every year”.
According to Dell, Starbucks’ Stane Aboan Promote polypropylene recycling No, especially from the recycling partnership, which is a non -profit organization supported in the industry, which in 2020 launched an initiative called the Polypropylene Recycling Alliance to “Make sure the polypropylene plastic is valid in the long runAs of December, the recycling partnership has been distributed $ 22 million in grants To recycling facilities to improve the collection and sorting of polypropylene. Kate Davbort, the organization’s chief policy in the organization, told Grist that the money helped increase the recycling rate for polypropylene packaging. She said that the recycling of polypropylene “needs a lot of investment”, although its organization also sees the need to reduce plastic production in general.
Starbucks is a founding partner of a member of the Steering Committee in the Polypropylene Recycling Alliance, the Nextgen, has donated millions of dollars to this organization “to” “”Explore the circular“From polypropylene, among other goals. Astarbucks spokesman said the company will continue to finance these similar efforts.
Starbucks refused to say whether to eliminate additional plastic forms for one use, such as snacks and pre -packed drinks, or commenting on whether the company will expand fertilized fertilizer cups at the country level.
Environmental defenders say that Starbucks should eliminate the uninterrupted plastic in all parts of the country, although Dell acknowledged that doing this may take some time due to the delay of the supply chain and the wide number of store Then everyone. The company called to be more transparent about its plans, and change the recycling box stickers in the store to clarify that the cans or plastic bottles-which are recycled at much higher rates of polypropylene cups-
Ramedsen said that although fertilized cups are “a step in the right direction”, Starbucks should put their focus on reusable containers whenever possible. “We need to stay away from the mentality of one use, whether it is plastic, aluminum or vibrant flexible containers, and moving towards re -filling systems and reuse.”
