EVER GOT to the supermarket and forgotten to bring the 63 plastic bags you have at home? Its not easy being green, but Starbucks is relying on its customers to help it cut waste.
The coffee chain is rolling out the sale of reusable cups in the US and Canada. Available for $1, the plastic cups resemble the paper version complete with logo. Customers who remember the cup will get 10 cents off their purchase, which means the cup pays for itself in 10 visits.
Dealing with disposable coffee cups has long given food and drink retailers and waste companies a headache the paper cups often have a plastic lining which make them difficult to recycle. Customers are often left confused about how to dispose of them.
So will the Starbucks initiative work? The company expects customers to buy two or three cups and trials have gone well. Others are more skeptical. “A bigger factor is human behaviour. I have friends who are environmentalists, and they have trouble remembering their mug,” Conrad MacKerron of As You Sow, a non-profit group advocating corporate social responsibility, told USA Today. “We’re so used to this disposable culture.”
