Greener Starbucks and Happier Customers

Take initiative.

Starbucks: the extremely well-known coffee company.

Starbucks is always there to help you stay up in the morning or night by lending you a delightful cup of coffee. It's always there for you if you're in need for a place to hold a meeting. Or to even have study sessions. It's there if you plainly need a pleasant break from work. Starbucks is an excellent company. Though it still does have some flaws. Flaws that, unfortunately, are affecting other forms of life besides humans.

As many of you know, the amazing Starbucks' drinks come in two types of cups: plastic and paper. You may think, "Yup, and they're both recyclable!" Though, the problem is this: Only the plastic cups are recyclable. The paper cups tell a different story.

Have you ever wondered how the paper cups don't leak? Or how it doesn't burn your hand while holding the hot content? How is this possible considering the cups are made of paper?

The inside of a Starbucks paper cup is covered with plastic, which allows it to hold in liquid and not have any sort of leakage. It also helps to not burn your hand, the plastic lining acting as a protective barrier. You may think, "Great! It kills 2 birds with 1 stone!", but this is where the problem comes along. In only a handful of cities will the paper cups be accepted for recycling for the same plastic lining.

The plastic can gum up the recycling machines. This being said, most recycling companies won’t process the cups at all to avoid the time and trouble. So what does happen to all those millions of plastic-lined coffee cups that are in the recycling bins in the Starbucks' stores? They will be separated from the other recyclable materials and sent to a landfill. What happens to all those cups that don't even end up in a trash can? They can pollute our water, be ingested by animals, etc.

SO THIS IS WHAT STARBUCKS NEEDS TO DO.

Starbucks has tried offering inexpensive reusable cups for customers who don't bring their own mug AND reward customers who DO bring their own mug. But the company’s efforts have never been strong enough to move coffee drinkers. A discount of 10 cents is not going to get many people participating. They need to raise the discount and inform about the discount on social media (at least once a week )!

They need to persuade more people into bringing their own mugs. This can be done by publicly announcing through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at the stores about the discount more often. Starbucks also needs to think of ways people WILL WANT to bring a cup. In other words, a 10 cent discount will most likely not do. Once a number of people start bringing their own mugs, a chain reaction will occur, the less amount of paper cups will need to be created and the environment will benefit.