New Starbucks Cup Recycling Bins Arrive in Stores

Bespoke bins designed to recycle all paper cups installed in 20 London stores

New bins encourage from street to store disposal to ensure cups are recycled

Coffee shop customers invited to recycle any paper cup in the bins

London, 27 January 2017 – Today, Starbucks new paper cup recycling bins arrive in stores as part of an ongoing strategy to help reduce paper cup waste. An initial 20 stores in Central and West London will offer the paper cup bin encouraging ‘from-street-to-in-store’ disposal to ensure more paper cups are recycled. The arrival of Starbucks new cup recycling bins follows a successful back of house trial run in partnership with waste management provider, Veolia, since last spring which confirmed the requirements for successful recycling of paper cups.

Created for Starbucks, the bins are designed to help enable effective recycling. Each bin features clearly indicated sections for consumers to tip away excess liquid, remove the sleeve and lid and then stack their cup separately. From here the cup can be recycled through the store’s waste collection, rather than relying on local recycling facilities.

Starbucks is encouraging all ‘to go’ customers to return any take-away paper cups back into store, not only Starbucks cups.

The news today also follows the announcement that Starbucks is supporting the Hubbub Square Mile Challenge, which will see a variety of businesses and Hubbub introducing coffee cup recycling facilities across the city in London in April 2017.

“This new bin design is a significant way to test not only how cups can be recycled in our stores but also how people will embrace the new behaviour. Paper cup waste is a complex but important issue across the industry," said Simon Redfern, vice president communications for Starbucks Europe. "To help tackle it, our strategy focuses on increasing ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle and these new bins provide a way for customers to help us make a difference. We’re asking customers to help us test this new approach so we can learn what works.”

Beyond the introduction of the new bins, Starbucks continues to offer its industry-leading 25p discount to customers using a reusable cup, an initiative Starbucks has had in place for over a decade.

Starbucks business customers can also recycle their paper cups via a ‘post-back’ Cup Care scheme offered by waste management partner, Veolia.