The Stand Better Cup CampaignFrom our customers’

standpoint, the cup is our no. 1 environmental liability”

“Cups are our iCon, our billboard, part of the ethos

of the Company. Customers have this great experienCe of interaCting with store

partners and the beverage. then, when they’re finished,

they say, ‘now what do i do with my Cup?’

-starbucks director oF environmental impact (2010)

starbucks will serve 4+ billion disposable paper cups this year—8,000 cups a minute.

that’s four times the weight of the brooklyn bridge.

laid end-to-end 4b cups would extend to the moon and halfway back

more than a million trees each year are cut to make starbucks paper cups.

starbucks cups are only recycla-ble in a handful of cities: the vast majority of starbucks paper cups end up in the trash.

starbucks serves more than four billion disposable paper coffee cups every year — that’s more than a million trees chopped for cups that are used once and, with rare exception, thrown away. stand is demanding a solution to this destructive waste. starbucks cups are out of touch with starbuck’s green image.

in 2008 starbucks recognized that its cups were a problem and said it would make changes. the company committed to make its cups recyclable and serve more coffee in reusable cups. it set ambitious goals for 2015, but seven years later the company missed those goals, and since then, has been silent on the issue.

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Recommit to 100% Recyclable cups

Cups must be recyclable in both material and practice so that cups are recycled wherever they are disposed. the inside of a starbucks paper cup is coated with plastic, which allows it to hold liquid. that plastic coating can gum up paper recycling machines, so most recycling companies won’t process the cups. some starbucks stores have recycling bins, which might lead you to think that the cups you drop in those blue bins will be recycled. but with few exceptions, the plastic-lined coffee cups in those recycling bins will be separated from the other paper materials and sent to a landfill. serving a cup that could be recycled with standard paper would be a simple solution to this problem and would save 8,000 cups a minute from the landfill. solutions are possible, and starbucks is just the type of innovative company to develop this sort of technology.

Are compostable cups the solution? Great question. our campaign is demanding recyclable cups because the paper used in cups is very high quality and could be recycled many times before losing its value. reusing paper through recycling takes pressure off of our forests.

commit to 100% tRee-fRee cups

Today 90% of each Starbucks cup is made from freshly cut trees.

in the us and canada, starbucks paper cups are made with only 10% post-consumer recycled paper. using more than a million trees each year to create cups that go straight to the landfill is a waste. starbucks can do better. new technologies make it possible to manufacture cups out of fast-growing, less destructive, renewable fibers that do not destroy forests.

Recommit to 25% Reuse

Reusable mugs are the most responsible approach.

starbucks serves fewer than 2% of its hot drinks in reusable mugs. they can do a lot more to help customers make the switch. starbucks has tried offering inexpensive reusable cups and incentives for customers who bring their own mug. but the company’s efforts have never been strong enough to move coffee drinkers. it’s time starbucks gets serious about providing incentives that get people participating. it’s also time to bring back washable, reusable mugs for customers who are staying in the store.

Stand.eaRth iS going to help StaRbuCkS ReCommit to a betteR Cup and live up to itS pRomiSe to do the Right thing foR CuStomeRS, foReStS and the Climate. heRe’S what StaRbuCkS needS to do:

the Coffee Cup/Climate ConneCtion

more than a million trees are cut each year to manufacture the coffee cups served at starbucks. according to the united nations and scientists on the inter-governmental panel on climate change, destruction of forests is responsible for about a fifth of global carbon pollution, making it the second biggest cause of climate disruption after burning fossil fuels. the carbon emissions from paper use for starbucks disposable cups is equivalent to the exhaust from more than 30,000 cars annually. in addition, paper cups decomposing in landfills produce vast quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

time to SeRve a betteR Cup

if anyone can solve this problem, starbucks can. starbucks has a proven record of innovation and creating solutions to tough problems that the company can scale to its 23,000 stores around the world.

When one of the wealthiest companies in the world won’t do more to decrease its forests and climate impact, we know they need some serious help focusing their attention on this issue: that is what the stand better cup campaign is going to do.

why Cups?

the first thing many people think about when they think about starbucks is the company’s iconic bright white cup. the cup is the cornerstone of customer experience, a connection that starbucks recognized in 2011 as both a market advantage and a potential problem:

[W]e are mindful of the impact our cups have on the environment, from the way they are manufactured to the their final disposal.1

in 2008, starbucks embraced the challenge of serving only responsible cups and committed to an ambitious waste reduction strategy. the company announced plans to make 100% of their cups reusable or recyclable by 2012 and serve 25 percent of all beverages in personal, reusable tumblers or in-store “serveware” by 2015.

to reach these goals they would collaborate with industry leaders, including competitors, to “lead the entire industry towards greater access to recycling for cups and other packaging”2 and “reduce the global impact of food and beverage packaging.”3 in 2008 starbucks engaged experts at the massachusetts institute of technology to develop a solution to cup recycling. this led to three cup summits with a goal of crafting comprehensive recycling strategies for starbucks and others in the foodservice industry.

first Starbucks Cup Summit (2009)4 in may 2009 ben packard, the starbucks vice president of Global responsibility, and Jim hanna, starbucks director of environmental impact, brought 30 cup, cupstock and coating manufacturers, recyclers, waste managers and university researchers to seattle to meet with starbucks staff and ceo howard schultz to discuss solutions for the cup. experts at the meeting laid out the many challenges and opportunities, but many of the findings were hopeful that a solution was close at hand. experts presented data that showed that many paper coffee cups in the market were already repulpable and recyclable, and one group of experts found that starbucks cups were already recyclable under industry standards and could simply be diverted into recycling facilities.

Second Starbucks Cup Summit (2010)5

in april 2010 starbucks convened the second cup summit at the massachusetts institute of technology. the two-day meeting included municipal officials, raw material suppliers, cup manufacturers, retail and beverage businesses, recyclers, nGos, and academic experts. the agenda of the meeting included a focus on solutions to the challenge of the wide variability in recycling capabilities among commercial and residential recycling programs. starbucks, it seems, was beginning to see this variability as the biggest barrier to the solution to recyclability.

third Starbucks Cup Summit (2011)6

starbucks held the third and final cup summit in boston in september 2011 with more than 100 packaging industry leaders to discuss solutions for the recyclability of cups and other packaging. representatives from paper mills, cup manufacturers, restaurant operators, recyclers and nGos, along with academic experts, brainstormed recycling solutions. a blog by a starbucks environmental affairs manager7 noted that volume was a key barrier to recycling. because four out of five disposable cups leaves the store in the hands of customers, recycling solutions must include collection of cups from homes or offices. some recyclers cited the difficulty recycling plastic cup liners and other contaminants in existing recycling systems. however, a recycler from spain at the meeting remarked on his company’s experience that the problems of recycling cups were challenges of business culture, not technical barriers.8

Starbucks passes the buck to Recyclers… or Starbucks loses its nerve

after the third and final cup summit starbucks backed away from its commitment to solving the cup dilemma, diverting blame to government policy and recyclers and away from paper cups and possible changes in technology that could make the cups easier to recycle.

unfortunately, starbucks drew the wrong conclusion from these cup summits. starbucks decided that the primary responsibility for the recyclability of the cups it serves lies with recyclers. starbucks disregarded evidence that cups can be recycled in existing recycling operations. starbucks dismissed technologies that could make recycling of cups within the normal paper waste stream even easier.

this approach is not consistent with starbucks’ commitment to serve cups that meet the standards of existing recycling technology, regardless of variability among recyclers:

ultimately we want our packaging to be recyclable in both material and practice, so that our customers have access to recycling services wherever they choose to dispose of their waste.

in the years since ceo howard schultz promised 10,000 baristas at a meeting in new orleans that the company would take the responsible path on cups, starbucks invested heavily in solving the problem, enlisting experts, partners and competitors. but in 2013, after five years of effort, starbucks said in its Global responsibility report that “a one-size-fits-all approach” would not work and admitted that it wasn’t going to meet its recycling goals in 2015 – if ever.10 the company then walked back its commitment on recyclability and reduced its goal for reusable mugs from 25 to 5 percent.

after years of putting its brand front and center on solving the problem of paper cups, starbucks sought to gain anonymity in the pack, citing its participation in an industry association, relinquishing its responsibility, and ignoring its commitment as the promised 2015 deadline came and passed.

Starbucks shouldn’t give up, they should solve the problem

in a February 2016 letter stand executive director todd paglia challenged starbucks ceo howard schultz to live up to the values of his company, his employees and his customers:

starbucks is a company that clearly believes that thriving forests, clean water, and a stable climate are all things we must work toward. it is time to bring the immensely persuasive and innovative power of starbucks to bear on the environmental problems that your operations create. it is well past time for starbucks to honor and even exceed the public commitments to sustainability that it has made – yet thus far, failed to accomplish.

stand is formally requesting that ceo howard schultz commit starbucks to a goal of no net impact on forests and implement a plan to achieve that goal by taking specific steps around serving a responsible cup:

making good on the commitment to have 100% reusable or recyclable cups. recommitting to achieve 25% reusable cups.

committing to 100% post-consumer recycled and/or tree-free cups. and, on the path toward 100% recycled/tree-free cups, which will take a number of years, starbucks must shift toward more sustainable fiber certified by the Forest stewardship council and decrease and eventually eliminate use of “sFi,” tree fiber “certified” by the logging industry itself.

adopting world leading sustainability goals on other high impact aspects of your operations from energy use, to policy advocacy, to packaging, and more.

it’s time for starbucks to do more than talk about responsibility and sustainability when it comes to its iconic cups: they must take meaningful action. starbucks original goal for their cups was bold and ambitious. customers around the world expect nothing less from the company that taught the world to love great coffee. now, we want a better cup.

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For more inFo www.bettercup.earth

bettercup@stand.earth

July 7, 2016

Notes

1 http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/global-report/environmental-stewardship/cup-recycling2 http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/global-report/environmental-stewardship/cup-recycling3 http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/global-report/environmental-stewardship/cup-recycling4 https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/15/starbucks-cup-summit5 https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-hosts-second-cup-summit-to-advance-recycling-initiatives6 http://www.starbucks.com/blog/cup-summit-3/10847 http://www.starbucks.com/blog/cup-summit-3/10848 http://www.forbes.com/sites/mindylubber/2011/09/19/percolating-a-sustainable-coffee-cup/#24326ffe55299 http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/environment/recycling10 http://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/b48b38aed56e4fdd8dcdbbfad23e3242.pdf cover art adapted in part from original image: photographer: beige alert | http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageid=2499115