If you’ve visited a Starbucks in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, London or Vancouver recently, did you notice a difference in the paper coffee cups?
The mega-sized coffee chain hopes not, but millions of dollars have been invested behind the scenes to make cups fully recyclable and compostable.
"Customers will not see any noticeable difference from the current cup," the company said in a statement discussing the test, according to CNN.
The new cups feature a compostable liner coating the inside of the cup instead of the traditional plastic sheen.
The current cups are technically recyclable, but the plastic liner is hard to separate from the paper cup in industrial facilities.
"Plastic-lined paper cups are light, stackable and effectively keep liquid from seeping out. And technically, at least, they are recyclable," writes CNN reporter Danielle Wiener-Bronner. "But it's difficult to do so because many recycling facilities don't separate paper cups from their plastic linings. If the cups end up in recycling facilities that don't separate the materials, they could gum up machines and harm the equipment."
The new cups were developed by crowd-sourced solutions in the “NextGen Cup Challenge.” McDonald’s and Starbucks each donated $10 million to help develop a more eco-friendly disposable cup.
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This challenge comes as a part of Starbucks' commitment to double the recycled content, recyclability and compostability, and reusability of their cups and packaging by 2022.
"Each year, an estimated 600 billion paper and plastic cups are distributed globally, and though Starbucks cups only account for an estimated 1 percent of that total, we are invested in finding a more sustainable solution." — Starbucks
They are also pushing to phase out their use of plastic straws by the end of the year.
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