The coffee giant has pledged to help the environment by eliminating all plastic straws from its coffee stores around the world. Today, Starbucks announced that the brand will be eliminating single-use straws from 28,000 company-operated and licensed stores across the globe and will be providing customers with their strawless lid alternative or alternative-material straw option. According to a recent press release, the company plans to eliminate over one billion plastic straws from their stores per year.
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The Starbucks Strawless Lid is Changing The Coffee Game
The banning of single-use plastic straws has been a hot-button topic for the past few years due to environmental concern. According to Eco-Cycle, Americans use 500 million single-use straws daily, which end up in landfills. The strawless lids, which are currently available in 8,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada, will be released globally to eliminate the use of straws for cold drinks. And for frappuccinos blended beverages, Starbucks will begin offering straws made from alternative materials - including paper or compostable plastic. The new lids and straws will be phased out to every Seattle and Vancouver, Canada location this Fall, and will continue across the US periodically. A roll-out of the cups will continue onto Europe, beginning with the Netherlands, France and the U.K.
"For our partners and customers, this is a significant milestone to achieve our global aspiration of sustainable coffee, served to our customers in more sustainable ways," said Kevin Johnson, president, and chief executive officer for Starbucks.
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Other companies joining Starbucks in conservation efforts include Alaska Airlines, Royal Carribean, and Bon Appetit Management, which has over 1,000 locations in establishments such as universities and museums. Fast food giant McDonalds, has also stepped up, sharing that they will begin testing plastic-alternatives at restaurants starting this year.
Be sure to be on the lookout for these new lids and straws coming to a Starbucks near you soon.
