Introduction

The modern lifestyle and busy work routines brought disposable culture in western countries and
then spread to developing countries as well. A hot cup of coffee in a café or on the road is a
familiar scene in everyday life. The use of plastic bottles and cans for cold beverages became a
norm three decades back, but the rising trends of drinking hot coffee due to Starbucks, Costa
Coffee, and Dunkin Donuts globally, increased consumption of disposable plastic and paper cups
observed in last two decades. On average, 68 billion coffee cups consumed every year only in
United States, and the figures are enormous for the rest of the world. In USA, around 150 million
people consume coffee every day and more than 100 million drink coffee on different occasions.
Thus, the modern lifestyle of holding a coffee cup drastically affected the environment. The
claims of large companies of using recyclable coffee cups are largely false as these coffee cups
are non-recyclable largely. This paper analysed the inherent threats of using plastic and paper
coffee cups and their replacement with reusable coffee cups in Starbucks. The case study of
Starbucks and the initiatives taken by company to handle this environmental issue of waste
reduction discussed in detail.

Issues created by Disposable products

One of the many challenges in reducing the use of disposable products is that the true social cost
of using these disposable products, the externalities, are not incorporated into the price we pay
for them. The cost of coffee cups is not obvious to consumers because the cost of the cup is
embedded in the price consumers pay for their coffee, and individuals use multiple cups in a day
without any obvious environmental repercussions. The environmental cost of using disposable
coffee cups is in the energy and resources used for the production, the shipping and particularly
the disposal of each cup. Landfills have many environmental impacts that can mainly be
classified in air, water and solid waste (Sojo Benítez, 2003) aside from these direct
environmental impacts there are also indirect social, economic and health impacts that result
from landfills. The price of a coffee cup to the consumer is perceived to be free, therefore
these social impacts are not obvious. “Disposable cups represent the essence of an over
consumptive society: an obsession with convenience (Alsop, 2004)”.
The issue of the widespread use of disposable coffee cups is uniquely North American. Take-out
coffee is not nearly as popular in other cultures. In Europe for example, coffee is most often
made at home or bought and consumed at coffee shops where china not paper cups are used
(Verma, 2005). Therefore North American policy makers cannot learn from how their European
counterparts have tackled this issue.

Recycling Coffee Cups

A common reaction to the excessive use of disposable coffee cups is: “Why don’t we just recycle
them all?” The IPSOS Focus Groups in 2009 indicated that almost all participants believed
coffee cups are recyclable in Toronto. Even if coffee cups were recyclable it would not be an
effective use of our resources to use disposable products daily. In some cases it is unavoidable to
use a disposable cup, however 70 percent of coffee cups are used as part of a daily routine
(IPSOS 2008). As part of a daily routine it is feasible to replace the disposable cup with a
reusable cup. Yet consumers feel that placing a disposable cup into the recycling bin is green
enough. According to Shana Weber, the manager of sustainability at Princeton University, many
people think recycling is equal to sustainability, if people think they are living sustainably
just because they are recycling, they need to think again (Lemonick, 2009). Because recycling
generates a feel good effect that consumers don’t feel the need to change their habits to reduce
waste by using a reusable cup. Therefore the recyclability of paper cups is explored to
accompany the waste reduction initiative. There are several causes for the perpetuation of the
coffee cup recycling myth. Certain jurisdictions accept the polyethelene lined paper cup in their
recycling or green bin programs and several retailers label their recycling bins as the appropriate
disposal bin for the paper cup.

Evaluation of Alternatives
Styrofoam cups, Biodegradable Cups and Reusable Mugs are among several alternatives to the
industry standard polyethylene lined paper cup exist. This paper compares the use of disposable
styrofoam cups, widely used before the public outcry in the1980ʼs and disposable biodegradable
plastic lined paper cups, which are commonly perceived as a more environmentally friendly
choice than the standard paper cup (Lee, 2009). Finally, reusable cups are evaluated as an
alternative to all disposable cups.
Styrofoam cups
In the era of 1980s, Styrofoam manufacturing created chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC emissions
(Brower, 1999). Public awareness drove businesses to shift away from Styrofoam cups (Brower,
1999). Since 1980 Styrofoam cups no longer create CFC emissions in their manufacturing
process, but consumer opinion on Styrofoam cups has not been restored, “a significant share of
the environmentally concerned public is unaware that foam cups are no longer responsible for
ozone destruction” (Brower, 1999). Furthermore, to the disfavor of the Styrofoam cup image,
they are significantly cheaper than plastic lined paper cups. They are estimated to be on average
a third of the cost of paper cups (Papa, 2009). Coffee shops concerned about the impact of their
cup choice on their business are advised “Styrofoam has a cheap perceived value, which in turn
will devalue your coffee product. Paper cups send a more sophisticated and exclusive message”
(Papa, 2009).
Ironically, Styrofoam cups are the only cups that are recyclable incoffeee houses like Starbucks.
In the Life Cycle Assessment, further discussed under reusable cups below, Styrofoam cups are
shown to have the lowest production energy requirement (Hocking, 1994). Despite Styrofoam
cups having the lowest production energy equivalent and them being recyclable it is unlikely that
they will replace the current industry standard poly-lined paper cup due to the historic poor
public perception of the Styrofoam cup.
Biodegradable cups
One of the alternatives to the current industry standard of the polyethylene lined paper cup is the
polylactic acid cup, the so-called ʻbiodegradableʼ cup. These look and feel exactly the same as
the standard paper cup but the plastic layer is made from corn based plastic, polylactic acid,
generally referred to as PLA (AMEC, 2009). At first glance corn based plastic lined cups are an
improvement over petroleum based plastic lined cups, but upon closer inspection there are
concerns over the potential for more widespread use of biodegradable plastic food packaging, the
most common concerns are summarized below.
Research shows that biodegradable cups do not degrade in home composting facilities: “Will
Brinton, president of Woods End, a compost research laboratory in Mt. Vernon, Maine, who has
done extensive testing of PLA, says such containers are “unchanged” after six months in a home
composting operation. For that reason, he considers the signage touting PLAʼs compostability, to
be false advertising” (Roytle, 2006). Recycling systems have also expressed concerns over PLA.
If consumers place PLA in with PET products destined for recycling plants, this will become a
key concern for municipal recycling (Bogetich, 2007). The City of Toronto has already banned
biodegradable plastic bags from being sold (in December 2008) due to their compatibility
difficulties with other plastics in the recycling stream (Solid Waste Management
Services, 2009). The City stated that recyclers cannot use post-consumer plastic that contains
biodegradable plastics. Therefore any biodegradable plastics ending up in the recycling stream
will seriously damage the ability to maintain an end user market for recyclable plastic (Solid
Waste Management Services, 2009).
Reusable Cups
Many reusable cups are available to transport hot drinks. These keep coffee hot for
longer and would reduce the volume and weight of waste sent to landfill if they replaced

habitual use of disposable coffee cups.

Hocking
compared three types of reusable drinking
cups (ceramic, glass and reusable plastic) to
two types of disposable cups (paper and
polystyrene foam).
The energy of manufacture of reusable cups
is vastly larger than the energy of
manufacture of disposable cups (Table 1). In
order for a reusable cup to be an
improvement over a disposable one on an
energy basis, you have to use it multiple
times, in order to “cash in” on the energy
investment you made in the cup. If a cup
lasts only ten uses, then each use gets
“charged” for one-tenth of the
manufacturing energy. If it lasts for a
hundred uses, then each use gets charged
for only one-hundredth of the
manufacturing energy.
But in order to reuse a cup, it has to be
washed. The efficiency of the dishwasher,
and the efficiency of the energy system that
powers it, determine how much energy is
required for each wash.1 Hocking assumed a
new, commercial dishwasher running on
Canadian electricity, requiring about 0.18
MJ/cup-wash.2 The total amount of energy
per use is this wash energy plus the
appropriate fraction of manufacturing
energy, depending on the cup's lifetime.
Figure 1 shows how the energies per use of
the three reusable cups decline, the more

you use them.

The second study was conducted by Franklin Ltd. in 2006, their values for energy use of
PE-coated paper cups and Polystyrene cups are calculated to be approximately 30%
higher than in the Hocking study. The Franklin study compared only disposable
products; Polystyrene, Poly-coated Paperboard with and without a sleeve. The study
used traditional Life Cycle Inventory methodologies and found polystyrene cups to be
meaningfully lower in energy use than polyethelene coated paper cups with sleeves and

wax-coated paperboard cold cups.

I found a special case in a small local

coffee franchise in South Korea. Known as “Coffee Project,” started an extraordinary
solution from last year by taking on a project named “Take Around Tumbler” (TAT). Each
store prepared one hundred reusable tumblers for customers that ordered coffee to go. The
Coffee Project lent a tumbler marked ‘TAT’ to the customers, requesting them to bring it
again next time they make a visit.
1.3.4 Why do people not use reusable cups?
There are two kinds of customers in the coffee shop, where one type makes an order
for enjoying the drink inside the store, whereas the second type orders to go. The first type of
customers does not pose a big problem because local coffee shops already use reusable cups
in their stores. When they serve customers who want to drink coffee in the store, they serve
the ordered beverage in the reusable cups such as mug cups. Ordinary small local coffee
stores only try to use the paper cup when the customers want to take the beverage outside.
The problem, then, lies in the big global coffee franchise brands such as Starbucks. They
served reusable cups to merely 1.5% of customers who ordered a beverage in their coffee
shop.7 Of course this case was not related to the behaviors of customers; instead, it is usually
maintenance problem of the venders. If they are going to serve reusable mug in store, they
need to add personnel to wash the cups and so on. So this is another ethical issue of the
providers. As of now, the solution presented by Starbucks is developing paper cup material

rather than having interest in the behavior of the customers

Greening Trends
Across all consumer sectors there is an increasing trend for buying green. In 2008, thirty
percent of customers were buying green (Willard, 2009). Another identified barrier to the
reduction of disposable coffee cups is the bulkiness of a reusable mug. Compared to
carrying a reusable bag the mug is much heavier and bigger. Focus groups showed that
bulkiness is a barrier to consumers bringing reusable cups with them on their daily
routine (Ipsos Reid, 2009). However, a telephone survey of 700 Torontonians found that
70% of those who use disposable beverage cups would be likely to use a reusable cup
instead (Ipsos Public Affairs, 2008). The willingness to change does not appear to be
discouraged by the size of reusable cups.
Studies have shown “that the most important factor in whether individuals actually
behaved in an environmentally friendly way was ʻpersonal controlʼ which was defined as
ʻthe extent to which participants felt their actions could benefit the environment” (New
Economic Foundation, 2005). A campaign encouraging people to bring a reusable mug
to save another cup from being sent to a landfill could be an effective way to show

people that each time they bring their mug it makes a difference to the environment.
Starbucks is very particular about meeting all their customers’ needs. The environment of their
outlet is well equipped from friendly staff, a comfy place to relax to enjoy a good cup of coffee
with your loved ones and not to mention good Wi-Fi. Thus, working parents can come to
Starbucks and do their work without feeling stressed out. All in all, Starbucks is the perfect place
for families to dine in. In addition, Starbucks serve both hot and cold beverages, whole-bean
coffee, micro-ground instant coffee, full-leaf teas and also snacks. Most Starbucks stores also sell
pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and items such as mugs and tumblers. Since
1987, Starbucks had opened an average of two new stores every day and had been profitable as
local company in early 1980s. In addition the store initially sold just coffee beans and coffee
making equipment rather than the drinks they had become famous nowadays. Starbucks is also
famous for having good services and serve good quality of coffee. Moreover, Starbucks also
introduced the new drive-thru concept stores with consistency in kind so that customers have the
option to enjoy their favorite coffee on the go, or at the store should they prefer to stretch their
legs and relax.

Starbucks Cups - The Problem

Around 60 million customers walked into Starbucks stores every week, according to the
company. Around 80% of Starbucks customers in the US took their beverage on the go, while
only 20% of customers did the same in other markets. Starbucks had been using disposable paper
cups to serve its customers on the go for a long time. It claimed that it had little option other than
paper cups. Starbucks discarded an estimated 3 billion paper cups and I billion plastic cups each
year, which bought the company under intense scrutiny. Nearly 80% of the paper cups ended up
in landfills or as litter...............

Starbucks And Sustainability

In 1990, Starbucks started ‘contributing positively to the community and

environment’ and had included this as one of the guiding principles in conducting
its business. In 1992, the company also framed its Environmental Mission
statement, in which it pledged that, “Starbucks is committed to a role of
environmental leadership in all facets of our business.” Since then, it had
integrated environmental policies and programs in all its operations, and held its
partners accountable for the cause.

The company fulfilled this environmental commitment by understanding the

prevailing environmental issues and sharing the information with its partners and
then developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change. It bought,
sold, and used environmentally friendly products and encouraged its partners to
share its mission

Early Efforts To Solve The Problem

In the 1990s, Starbucks formed a relationship with Environmental Defense Fund to work out a
solution to this problem. At that time, the company used 100 percent bleached virgin paperboard
and also used double-cupping on a regular basis. The company tried to increase the use of
reusable ceramic or glass cups and dishes in its stores. In comparison to paper cups, ceramic cups
and glass cups were better for the environment after 70 and 36 uses respectively. Moreover,
Starbucks’ financial analysis showed that the company could save more than US$1 million per
year if it served its in-store customers their beverages in serverware made of ceramic......

Cup Summits

To come up with a solution to the cup problem, Starbucks hosted a series of Cup Summits. In
May 2009, Starbucks hosted the first Cup Summit with representatives from its paper and plastic
cup value chain. The goal of the summit was to prioritize and address the obstacles and
opportunities of coming up with a recyclable cup. The company through the summit strove to
achieve its long-term commitment to reduce the environmental impact of its cups......

Low-Cost Reusable Cups

In January 2013, Starbucks rolled out a US$1 reusable plastic cup at its cafés. Customers could
carry the cup while on the move and have it refilled with a drink whenever they required.
Reusable mugs and ceramic cups had been available at the Starbucks stores for a long time, but
the company had been unable to achieve its targets for customer adoption......

Reusable cups are an important component of Starbucks’s overall waste reduction

strategy. Since 1985 this coffee franchise business has rewarded its customers with a discount
when they bring in personal tumblers; Starbucks’s goal is to serve 5% of the beverages made
in its stores in tumblers and mugs brought in by the customers.
In 2012 customers brought their own tumblers into Starbucks’s stores 35.8 million
times, saving more than 1.6 million pounds of paper from landfills. Although customers
brought in their personal mugs 1.6 million more times in 2012 over the previous year, the
percentage of customers choosing reusable mugs remained flat from last year.
To sum up, according to the report mentioned above, Starbucks is pursuing a
variety of eco-friendly projects, and a number of indicators show that the company is
29 Starbucks Corporation: Starbucks Global Responsibility Report- Goals and Progress 2013. Starbucks, 2013. P17.
47
approaching their goals. However, it appears that the only one area of difficulty they face is in
the reduction of paper cup usage. This is due to the fact that it requires not only the efforts of
Starbucks, but also their customers’ participation. It is not an easy task to change customer’s
behavior and many of the survey results and research confine this. Therefore, from this point
on, we will observe how the Stage of Change theory can be applied to Starbucks, and how it

can be used to effectively change customer behavior in each stage

Looking Ahead

While many applauded Starbucks’ various initiatives to address the issue with its cups, there
were also many skeptics. Since 1985, Starbucks had offered a 10 cent discount to customers who
brought their own reusable cups. However, the company was thwarted by the customers’ force of
habit. Starbucks claimed that, in 2012, 35.8 million beverages were served in reusable cups
brought in by customer

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
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.
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.

The real solution is to use a reusable cup.

Although reusable cups have a bigger initial environmental impact than paper ones when they
are first made, over time, they become more resource-efficient than throwaway cups. Since a
coffee mug or tumbler is designed to be used about 3,000 times in its life, it provides about eight
years of use for the average daily coffee drinker. That represents quite a reduction in its
environmental impact compared with 3,000 throw-away cups.
Some cafes sell their own branded or neutral reusable tumblers; others give a discount if you
bring your own.

With 400 million cups consumed nationwide each day, the simple act of using a reusable mug
would lead to a great reduction in waste and energy consumption. All told, it’s a better way to
start the day.

Conclusion
In observing the
environmental problem posed by paper cup consumption, this project looked at a globally
branded
coffee shop, Starbucks. Being one of the largest coffee franchise businesses, Starbucks already
had
interest in the paper cup problem, trying numerous ways in which the situation may be solved.
However, it appears that their efforts are on a standstill, and other solutions are in need. When
carrying out the research, I tried to define why customers, who are aware of the environmental
problem of using paper cups, are not able to act according to the way they think. By studying
various literature reviews, I was able to acquire a broad perspective of the behavior motivation
and

the steps required to make a behavior change.

References

1. Mother Nature Network Holding Company (2010). Starbucks and the Environment.
Retrieved on November 22, 2014 from: http://www.mnn.com/money/sustainable-
business-practices/stories/starbucks-and-the-environment
2. Saed, T. (2009). The Impact of One Cup of Starbucks Coffee. Retrieved on November
22, 2014 from:
http://globalcitizens.pbworks.com/w/page/9036435/The%20Impact%20of%20One%20C
up%20of%20Starbucks%20Coffee
3. Taylor,B. Kelly,J. (2013)Global Responsibility Report Goals & Progress 2013. Retrieved
from http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/global-report.
4. Starbucks Corporation. (2014). Environmental Stewardship. Retrieved from

http://www.starbucks.com.my/responsibility/environment.