You may not pay much attention to the corrugated sleeve that Starbucks now slips on to every cup of coffee they serve, yet this simple innovation allows the company to save both resources and money. Before the innovation Starbucks simply gave their customers a second cup if the customer complained that the paper cup was too hot. This may not seam like a big deal, but when you consider the billion cups of coffee that Starbucks serves you begin to get the picture that this simple idea is indeed a big deal.
Besides the sleeve Starbucks also tries to use recycled materials in their cups. You might not think that making an environmentally-friendly cup would be that hard, but there is a lot steps involved before you can start using a new cup. For instance the cup needs to comply with regulations set by the FDA. Before the eco-cup no company in the industry had every used recycled material near food, not to mention near a steam hot beverage.
Since Starbucks introduced the new cup they have saved 300,000 trees. Currently the cup is made from 10% post consumer fiber, and the company plans to make the cup completely recyclable. One issue that still remains is that the cups still cannot be recycled in all communities in the U.S. because of the plastic inside the cups meant to prevent spillage. Starbucks is apparently running a pilot program in New York with Green Global USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery. Paper cups will be gather with corrugated cardboard for recycling.
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