Anatomy of a Starbucks Coffee Cup

Around 8:30am at the office.

Zzzzzz..... head dozing off early in the morning. The cup of coffee I took before leaving home is not kicking in my system.

Coffee... I need COFFEE!!!!

So, I head down the cafeteria and grabbed a cup of Starbucks coffee. After a few sips, WOO HOO!!! I'm feeling the caffeine flowing through my veins and now I'm refreshed and energized.

I then noticed something on the coffee sleeve. It said "Starbucks is committed to reducing our environmental impact through increased use of post-consumer recycled materials. Help us help the planet." Also written are the following:

60% post-consumer fiber sleeve
First-ever 10% post-consumer fiber cup

I then looked at the cup and I found the information about the recycled part. Also, the lid that they are using are recyclable. Below are the pictures that I took to show the details of the recycled/recyclable parts.

Starbucks coffee sleeve.

Fiber cup (10% post-consumer shown at the bottom)

A closer look of the cup
(apologies... blurred picture. I took this using my cell phone)

Lid of the cup

This is a good thing and I hope the other coffee cup makers and coffee shops will follow Starbucks lead on this.

I just found information regarding the Cup Recycling program at Starbucks by Global Green USA at sustainablog.org. There are lot of very interesting information written by Cindy Tickle. Please visit this link for the full article.

But if you really want to help the environment, a better choice is to use a reusable mug (similar to the pictures shown below) to drink your coffee, tea or other beverage of your choice. You will not produce any waste and you can reuse the mug everytime you want a refreshing drink... just don't forget to clean it after each use. :)

Reusable Mug

Reusable Mug available at the office