Coffee Giants Unite for Sustainability

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Sep 8th 2010 @ 1:00PM

recycled cup from starbucks Photo: Surat Lozowick, Flickr

What's got Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks and Tim Hortons working together? No, there's no mass coffee merger in the works, but rather, a bipartisan acknowledgment that their daily coffee to-go routine is in need of a serious sustainability overhaul -- all that non-biodegradable Styrofoam is so pre-"green."

As The Boston Globe reports, the three coffee giants attended a "cup summit" at MIT this April (fittingly, on Earth Day), which was hosted by the Director of Environmental Impact at Starbucks, Jim Hanna. There, they met with cup manufacturers, municipal officials and waste transporters. As Hanna told the Globe, "sustainability is a problem we all have to share together."

The companies began sharing research on financial efficiency, consumer recycling habits, even prototype cups and plans for a "waste-free zone" pilot program. The perfect, sustainable coffee cup would need to be "recyclable or compostable, keep coffee hot, and not cost franchises too much," the Globe notes.

Current models include paper (often not easily recyclable because of its non-compostable, wax-like lining) and the compostable "ecotainers" used by Green Mountain Coffee, which are not universally compostable -- the corn-based polymer liner can only break down under proper conditions from a few commercial facilities (not, say, your backyard), the Globe says.

As of yet, prototypes have been unsuccessful. Some were so compost-ready, they began leaking upon use, which made for some unhappy (soaked and, possibly, burned) testers; other efforts include incentive programs to entice customers to bring in their own reusable mugs. So for now, anyway, each company continues to build on what it has.

Starbucks introduced a paper cup made with 10 percent recycled material and plans to host in-store recycling and composting programs in Ontario, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City (this fall) and Chicago (next year), while Dunkin' has reduced the amount of Styrofoam they use in each cup.

Not quite the revolution we were hoping for.

Filed Under: Eco-Friendly
Tags: coffee, coffee cup, cup summit, dunkin donuts, starbucks, sustainable coffee cup, tim hortons

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-08-2010 @2:16PM Janice said... Everyone uses disposable cups. Even Four Seasons Hotels recently announced that it will begin offering to go cups with its morning coffee service. (If there is anywhere that cups and saucers should be right at home it’s Four Seasons.)
Here are some alternatives: http://gigabiting.com/?p=2664/
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