Last week, while we were busy handing out D-shaped trophies, Starbucks quietly announced a certified home-compostable hot cup overseas.
After countless trials and refillable take-back programs, a sad truth remains—you can’t recycle the cups for hot beverages at Starbucks because of the plastic liner inside each cup. Yes, processes exist that will separate the liner from the paper cup, but it’s by no means an everyday occurrence, nor is every material recovery facility (MRF) outfitted with this kind of equipment. But if there’s one thing you can give the brand credit for, it’s that they have invested in finding a long-term solution to plastic waste and trying to ensure that their cups don’t go straight to landfill, even if we don’t often hear about the results of their many—and presumably—failed pilot programs.
