As part of a commitment to reduce its carbon, water and waste footprints in half by 2030, Starbucks has introduced new plastic cold cups that are made with 10-20% less plastic than the current cup sizes that customers are familiar with, while still holding the same volume of liquid. The new plastic cold cups are reported to keep 13.5 million pounds of plastic from landfills each year.
According to Starbucks, the new plastic cups are projected to save, annually, emissions equivalent to taking about 5,200 cars off the road, and conserve about 2,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. In addition, the cups are said to be cheaper to produce.
Notably, the new cups all use the same lid, streamlining the supply chain. Before, the tall cup had multiple lid options, while the grande and venti cups shared a different lid.
“We’re in the efficiency business,” says Kristi H., a store manager in Washington state, whose team tested the cup while it was being developed. “Anytime we can streamline or shave seconds off our operations, it frees us up to have more human connections with our customers, and just have more fun at work. Anytime we can get behind anything with less of an environmental footprint is huge. It’s a small step to the bigger good.”
