If you read Slog regularly, you probably know that I’m not a fan of giant corporate chain stores, and I find Starbucks particularly distasteful.
That said, I have to say that Starbucks has a new Global Responsibility Report that is at least a step in the right direction.
The Seattle Times did a little research into it and pulled up this tidbit:
Starbucks wants to have a recycleable cup available by 2012 and to have all its cups be reusable or recyclable by 2015. It also wants to reestablish ceramic mugs as the standard for people who drink their coffee in stores.
I really dislike it when coffee shops use paper cups as the standard so this is good news, and I appreciate that even in these tough economic times, Starbucks is still at least working toward a better environmental policy. So: good job, Starbucks.
Washing ceramic cups, however, in many cases uses natural resources and causes comparable pollution. It’s a similar issue to that of diapers: do you use disposable or cloth? Well, it kind of depends on where you live, how much water there is, and what kinds of ingredients your detergents have, etc.
The very best solution is for people to bring their own reusable mugs, which you need to wash less frequently.
In addition to @1’s comment, all the coffee that gets thown away if it’s not consumed fast enough is also wasteful.
The best solution is to bring your own coffee, in your own mug.
Actually, Starbucks is probably using too much energy with its lighting and music.
The best solution is to bring your own coffee, in your own mug, to your own house.
(p.s. I’m not trying to be snarky, I just felt silly).
Modern dishwashers are remarkably efficient — way more so than hand-washing, for instance. Though dishwasher detergents never really come entirely off, negatively affecting the sheeting and foaming properties of a glass. It’s a big deal among beer and wine snobs — a dishwashed glass is ruined forever — but I don’t know if it matters for coffee snobs (as if you can tell anything about the coffee in the gallon of milk its mixed with for your typical infantilized Starbucks customer).
UW already has compostible cups and straws (but not lids).
so starbucks doesn’t use recyclable cups?
Every little bit helps, but I see don’t see Starbucks as very earth friendly when you look at all the waste in their point of purchase advertising as well as their new instant coffee line. There is an obscene amount of packaging for the amount of product received.
Plus, they have those little plastic green things to prevent spillage, and they’ve removed their glass sugar containers so people have to use sugar packets.
It’s not very responsible…
2012, really? Um, how about like, new? Tully’s has compostable cups already, don’t they?
@1, The greenest thing thing to do is kill yourself. (And it goes for everyone.)
It’s going to take them how long to do this? Seems sort of slow to me.
Evergreen has compostable cups (and plates and forks too). It took us about… one month.
Gee, I wonder if 16,000 Starbucks stores use as many cups as the cafeteria at Evergreen?
You can view the entire Global Responsibility Report here: http://starbucks.com/SharedPlanet
signed,
a daily slog reader at Starbucks
Once you ship those beans from South America to Seattle any chance at being environmentally responsible is pretty much a joke. The ONLY environmentally responsible course of action is to eat local sustainable crops. Stuff that grows within walking distance of where you eat. Freighting coffee beans half way around the world, and then putting them in a recyclable cup and thinking your saving the world is like shooting someone in the head and then giving them an aspirin to stop the pain.
Walk your talk or shut the fuck up.
Ceramic mugs are always preferable to paper cups, IMHO. They have handles, for chrissake! No messing with those stupid sleeves so you don’t burn your hands holding paper cups.
Environmental responsibility aside, ceramic mugs are superior containers for drinking coffee.
Shit, Hernandez beat me to it.
@13, you’re not even close to correct there, YGTBKM. Flying foodstuffs in is not, usually, environmentally destructive in itself; quite the opposite. Foodstuffs that are flown in from places where they are grown without irrigation, fertilizers, or greenhouse protection from the elements are better than ones grown here with all three. For instance, New Zealand lamb almost certainly uses less energy to put on your table than most Skagit County lamb.
Tully’s already has a recyclable compostable cup – at least at the UW.
2012? Give me a break, they could roll it out by 2010.
@2 – you can compost coffee grounds too.
@17
Let me clarify my point. The only environmentally responsible food is food that can be grown locally without irrigation, fertilizers greenhouses & Etc. I’m not proposing substituting one for the other, but eliminating them from your diet. That’s why I no longer drink coffee.
canal street has compostable plastic as well…
Is it “particularly distasteful” that SBUX offers health care benefits to part-time employees, such an irresponsible use of corporate funds…? just wondering
@20: Wow, macrobiotic moralism!
YGTBKM: I drank the low carbon footprint roasted grain beverage Postum until Kraft Megafoods discontinued it in October, 2007
Wherever I’ve gone for coffee, they have only one size of ceramic or glass mug. How can I get a venti latte if they only have tall mugs?
Dammit. Coffee’s meant to be consumed in styrofoam cups!
1. all partners should be trained in the proper way of washing dishes which is first rinsing off residue from the dish/glass, then soaking it in warm soap water, then rinsing that off, next letting it sit in sanitizer solution then throwing it in our sanitizer that wash rinses and sanitizes then brings the temperature to 180.
2. for here ware should be offered to all customers whether they accept it or not. if a store is not asking each customer this then that manager is not making sure his/her team is offering this to their customers. because for one thing starbucks is supposed to be your second place just like you’re at home and i’m pretty sure you don’t drink out of paper cups at home. and also partners should be drinking out of these same cups for the drinks on their shift
3. 2012 is a goal if possible to get this done earlier it will. why promise a date of next month when you can’t own up to it? isn’t it better to set a goal and achieve it before then? and think about the complexity of this all with stores all around the world it’s going to take a few years before they can set this up world wide.
4. and if you’re really germaphobic you can bring your own mug/tumbler/7-11 big gulp in and get 10cents off which is the cost of a cup and lid so why not.
5. @13 first off coffee beans well good arabica beans only grow in certain types of environments. and maybe you should look into what starbucks does with the farmers and the communities of these areas and how they help those farmers build sustainable crops and allow the use of more efficient irrigation systems and how they help build schools and buildings for these communities. and how about you remember that we are all human and we all need to help each other out
@2 starbucks is switching all stores to energy efficient led lighting
@20: Goddamn, I hope you dress in woven cedar bark and keep your body warm with dogfish oil, because otherwise YOU’RE NOT THINKING LOCALLY ENOUGH.