Starbucks Progresses with Reusable Cup Initiative, Starbucks customer in US and Canada can use their own cups

In a competition to eliminate the impact of its functions, Starbucks is introducing a step to allow consumers to use cup for order made by drive thru and its own app. Implement from Wednesday the step is match with coffee mega goal of decreasing waste output by half by the year 2030. The move is very important considering drive thru and app orders account for nearly 70% of Starbuck sales in the United States.

In 2022 only 1.2% of Starbucks drinks were sold in reusable containers. Starbucks will permit Canadian and U.S. consumer order Iced and blended beverages in tumblers or mugs starting Jan.3. The policy involve cafe counters , drive through window and through mobile app and it applies to all sizes.

Dome moments drinking a beverage from a favorite cup just gives you amazing feeling. Now this Starbucks personal cup policy permits that favorite mug, travel cup to be used with any order. The Starbucks personal cup program permit guests to use their favorite clean up for chai tea, or oatmilk latte. The decision to implement this program is a step toward waste reduction.

Customers selecting to use their own cups will get a 10 cent discount on their orders. Members of the Starbucks rewards program will earn an extra 25 stars. The cup should be clean and not exceed 40 ounce size limit. To ensure hygiene, Starbucks staff will use contactless vessels for managing the personal cups.

The step is part of its drive toward a future in which all Starbucks drinks are available in reusable cups. Starbucks aim is to decrease its waste by 50 % by 2030 and make all its own packaging recyclable or reusable by the end of the decade. The new policy based on various reusable cup experiment over the last one year at its Seattle lab and in 25 markets consisting of UK, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Colorado and California.

The program is active at company owned and licensed locations in the Canada and US. Consumers ordering through 3rd party platforms like Uber Eats will not get this feature. This growth is a important step towards Starbucks aim of shifting towards reusable plastics.

As the policy being implementing, there may be some hike along the way. There may be delay in drive thru lane cups will have to be passed back and forth. Few extra minutes will decrease a mega amount of waste it should be worth it.

Introduction of reusable cup program Starbucks will face challenges to implement.Maintaining the taste of complex drinks and avoiding extra employees.

Starbucks expressed that first national coffeehouse in the U.S. to allow consumers to use personal cups for mobile orders and first in Canada to assist all mobile order sizes. Tim Horton and Dunkin Donut help the use of cups under restricted scenario.

The company has not publicly revealed a timeline for when the program will be available outside the Canada and U.S. Starbucks CSO Michael Kobori “The vision is that in the future every drink should be served in a reusable cup”.

Starbucks does not open up how many single use containers it goes through per annum. According to survey Americans throw 50 billion cups per year.

The new policy applies to all company functioned Starbucks locations. It might not be available in licensed locations like those in grocery apartment. Starbucks had 18000 stores in North America of which 10,628 are company operated.

Drive through consumers reveal that they have a personal cup, remove the lide and give it to the barista. Once the drink is added it is given back to the consumers in the same way. This contactless transfer was refinde at Colorado drive throught firstly and it was adopted at close 200 stores in the state last fall.

Consumers ordering a beverage with Starbucks app will be asked to smash a button hinting that they are using a personal cup.When reach at pick up pint they hand over their clean cup without a cover by placing it in a container supplied by barista. The drink will be prepared and meausred as usual poured into the cup and given back to the consumer who will change the lid.

Baristas have the authority to refuse the cups that are unclean as they can not wash consumer cups in Starbucks prep sinks for safety and healthy reasons. The method remain the same the organization hd tested personal cup washing stations at Arizona State University.