<strong><em>Updated October 20, 2021</em></strong>

core/paragraph

In collaboration with <a href="https://www.closedlooppartners.com/">Closed Loop Partners</a> and the <a href="https://www.closedlooppartners.com/nextgen/">NextGen Consortium</a>, Starbucks is working toward our goal to develop 100% compostable and recyclable hot cups. The journey to find a more sustainable cup solution is part of Starbucks aspiration to be&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-solidifies-pathway-to-a-planet-positive-future/">resource positive</a>, giving more than it takes from the planet.

In 2018, Starbucks <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/starbucks-and-closed-loop-to-develop-recyclable-compostable-cup-solution/">committed $10M</a> in partnership with Closed Loop Partners to establish the NextGen Consortium and Cup Challenge, along with co-founder McDonald’s. Additionally, Starbucks invested $5M in Closed Loop Partners’ Infrastructure Fund that finances recycling and circular economy infrastructure across North America.

The NextGen Cup Challenge began with a six-month design competition that received 480 solutions globally from industry experts and cup scientists alike focused on redesigning the single-use hot and cold fiber cup. From there, the Consortium identified&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/closed-loop-partners-announces-12-winners-of-the-nextgen-cup-challenge/">12 winning</a>&nbsp;solutions across three areas: innovative cup &amp; cup liners, new materials, and reusable cup service models.

In March of 2019, Starbucks announced a commitment to&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/greener-cups-fewer-straws-and-tracing-your-coffees-journey-via-app/">conduct market tests</a>&nbsp;with a winning cup technology in select stores in five cities. Starbucks then led months of internal research and development at their Tryer Center, to put the various cups through an array of tests for quality and performance measurements. In addition, the company evaluated manufacturing logistics, scalability, and pricing of each cup. &nbsp;

<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-trials-a-nextgen-cup-solution/">In-store market testing</a> began in the spring of 2020 with a cup that was industrially compostable as well as recyclable in markets that accept hot cups. Starbucks selected cup technology – a BioPBS™-lined cup – was circulated in select stores in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, New York and London.

The testing doesn’t end there. Starbucks is currently working with Closed Loop Partners, the Consortium, and other businesses to test and validate the recyclability of various challenge winners, including the BioPBS™ cup. This includes <a href="https://www.closedlooppartners.com/starbucks-and-mcdonalds-deploy-additional-10-million-with-nextgen-consortium-to-accelerate-the-circularity-of-foodservice-packaging-address-urgent-waste-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an additional $10M commitment from Starbucks and McDonald’s</a> combined to continue the Consortium’s work: identifying, accelerating, and scaling commercially viable, circular foodservice packaging solutions.

With the additional $10 million in funding, the Consortium will expand its efforts, including and beyond the fiber cup, to strengthen the sustainable packaging ecosystem. The Consortium will deepen its customer research and testing of reusable packaging systems, explore the circularity of additional packaging materials such as polypropylene (PP), and accelerate the development of more widely recyclable and compostable fiber-based packaging solutions, as well as the infrastructure pathways needed for their recovery.

In addition to efforts with the Consortium, Starbucks will continue to test and learn from programs geared toward reducing single-use cups around the world, as part of the company’s larger goal to reduce waste sent to landfills by 50% by 2030.

Update on Starbucks Journey to Find a More Sustainable Cup - Starbucks Stories

Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

Starbucks Stories

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/01/Photo_TBD-320x411_1-1.jpg

Starbucks Corporation

Update on Starbucks Journey to Find a More Sustainable Cup

Starbucks outlines its journey with the NextGen Cup Challenge and plans for in-market tests.

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2020/03/SBX2020306-NextGen-Cup-Recycled-Feature.jpg

https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/update-on-starbucks-journey-to-find-a-more-sustainable-cup/

twitter:card

twitter:description

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2020/03/SBX2020306-NextGen-Cup-Recycled-Feature-1024x498.jpg

twitter:image

twitter:title

Sitting without fanfare on the table in front of packaging engineer Andy Corlett is the clear, recyclable lid that will soon replace more than a billion plastic straws each year.

“It sounds dramatic, but this lid is going to get used about a billion times a year. It’s going to take billions of single-use plastic straws off the market,” said Corlett, director of global packaging solutions and innovations, whose team at Starbucks helped design the lid. “It still hasn’t necessarily hit me.”

Corlett, who designed packaging for companies including L'Oréal and Proctor &amp; Gamble before coming to Starbucks three years ago, said the solutions he’s worked on in the past more typically might reach 10 million customers, a number that seems large. But this is on another level. It’s surreal to work on a project that will reach billions and will “change a way of doing things that’s been around for 100 years.”

core/gallery

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/SBX031919-Starbucks-New-Lids-2.jpg

core/file

“We’re seeing a lot more public awareness around sustainability in packaging,” he said. “We have a major opportunity here. The impact and reach of this project make it really special. Plus, we think customers are going to love it.”

core/image

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/SBX031919-Starbucks-New-Lids-4.jpg

In July 2018 Starbucks announced it would phase out plastic straws from more than 30,000 stores worldwide by 2020. The new lightweight, strawless cold drink lid will begin rolling out to stores in the United States and Canada this summer, an important milestone for eliminating plastic straws.

The new lid was modeled strongly after the lid traditionally used on Starbucks hot drinks, Corlett said. But while the standard hot and new cold beverage lids are similar enough to be siblings, if not fraternal twins, there will not be one lid to rule them all. Corlett said maximum enjoyment of a wide variety of beverages calls for variations in design. The Nitro lid, for instance, has a wider mouth to allow for optimal sips of liquid and foam simultaneously. Blended drinks, like the Frappuccino, have recyclable, domed plastic lids and will still feature straws (except in cities where straws have been prohibited)), but by 2020 those straws will be made of a plastic alternative.

The new cold drink lid uses nine percent less plastic than the former lid and straw combined and can still accommodate a straw, which will be available upon request, for those who need to use one, Corlett said. Starbucks is currently testing alternative materials to replace plastic straws as part of its goals to eliminate plastic straws by 2020 and to double the recyclability, compostability and reusability of its cups and packaging by 2022.

“We’re bringing new technologies to our company that we’ve never thought of before,” Corlett said. “It’s very exciting times as we look forward to our journey of being the most sustainable company we possibly can.”

At the Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders Wednesday, Michelle Burns, senior vice president of global coffee &amp; tea, will share news of the new strawless cold drink lid as well as other updates on progress the company has made toward sustainability.

Over the next year, in several worldwide markets, Starbucks will pilot new cups that will be both recyclable and compostable in those cities. 

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/SBX031919-Starbucks-Recyclable-and-Compostable-Cups-5.jpg

Starbucks initiated a collaboration called the <a href="https://www.nextgenconsortium.com/">NextGen Consortium</a> last spring with partners such as McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, Yum! Brands, Wendy’s and the World Wildlife Fund to not only explore next-generation recycling and composting technologies, but to work with municipalities to increase acceptance of these green &nbsp;cups.

Customers in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and London will help test several cups from the 12 <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/closed-loop-partners-announces-12-winners-of-the-nextgen-cup-challenge/">NextGen Cup Challenge winners</a> announced earlier this month. 

“Who knows what further innovation we will see – I’m excited to see what happens next,” Corlett said. “Starbucks, either through our own initiatives or through collaborations, is making a significant change in the industry and how it thinks. That’s very special to me.”

At the annual shareholders meeting, the audience will sip Pike Place® Roast from a prototype of one of these cups.

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/SBX031919-Starbucks-Recyclable-and-Compostable-Cups-4.jpg

To put a lid on the company’s dedication to sustainability, Burns will also preview an upcoming feature in the Starbucks mobile app that will eventually let consumers trace the journey of the coffee inside their cups from bean to brewing. (In the case of the batch of Pike Place being served at the meeting, 80 percent of the beans came from farmers in Colombia and 20 percent from farmers in Brazil.) This ability to digitally trace the journey of coffee is another crucial piece of the company’s effort to be transparent in its sustainability and ethical sourcing, Burns said. 

core/embed

Say hello to the lid that will replace a billion straws a year - Starbucks Stories

Say hello to the lid that will replace a billion straws a year

The new lightweight, strawless cold drink lid will begin rolling out to stores in the United States and Canada this summer, an important milestone for eliminating plastic straws.

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/New-lids-for-social.jpg

https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/say-hello-to-the-lid-that-will-replace-a-billion-straws-a-year/

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/New-lids-for-social-1024x671.jpg

compostable cups

compostable cups - Starbucks Stories

Home

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/01/Starbucks_Logo_Hi-res.jpg

https://stories.starbucks.com/tag/compostable-cups/

English

Our aspiration is to be people positive—investing in humanity and the well-being of everyone we connect with, from our partners to coffee farmers to the customers in our stores and beyond.

People

Planet

Coffee is at our heart, inspiring our craft and driving innovation—in our drinks, our food, our stores and new ways we bring the Starbucks experience to you wherever you are.