April 21 -- (Vancouver) As part of an ongoing global initiative to reduce its impact on the environment, Starbucks Coffee Company, Canada today announced front of store recycling in its company owned stores across British Columbia. The program, which is the first to accept single serve coffee cups in BC, includes the most common form of hot beverage cup, the polyethylene lined hot beverage cup.

“Our target is that by 2015 we have recycling available for our customers in all of our stores worldwide where we control waste collection and to serve 25% of beverages in reusable cups,” said Jim Hanna, director of environmental impact, Starbucks Coffee Company. “We also aim towards 100% of our cups being recyclable so we are excited to be closer to realizing those goals with this program being implemented across British Columbia.”

The program will see customized multi-receptacle recycling bins appear in stores in advance of Earth Day. The bins will have simple signage for customers to indicate which recyclables go where. Bins will be located within all company owned stores across the province where Starbucks controls waste collection and recycling is available at the community level. The bins will allow for the cup, the lid and the sleeve of Starbucks beverages to be recycled. The bins will also accept iced coffee plastic cups and lids.

“We want to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020, and this is a great example of how businesses can step up and help us meet our goal,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Coffee cup recycling was identified as a top priority in our Talk Green To Us campaign, and we are pleased to see Starbucks taking action to increase recycling options at their stores in Vancouver and across the province."

Waste management is a complex highly localized industry requiring that the recycling, once picked up, is seen as a commodity with market value. Starbucks worked closely with its waste management suppliers to ensure that the recycled cups are fed into the mixed paper recycling stream and not incinerated or sent to landfill.

“Starbucks has been synonymous with Vancouver since we opened our first store here at the Seabus Terminal 24 years ago,” said Cindy Bokitch, regional vice president, Western Canada, Starbucks Coffee Company. “This is a community we are committed to and share values with. We are proud to be able to be able to make a difference reducing landfill by offering this service to our customers.”

Starbucks sells approximately 4 billion cups globally per year. The single serve cup industry sells more than 500 billion cups worldwide in the same period. As one of many businesses operating in the industry, Starbucks is working to lead the way in communities like Vancouver to move the entire industry towards cup recycling.