Environmentalists are slamming Starbucks for falsely claiming its plastic cups are \u201cwidely recyclable,\u201d after an investigation could not confirm a single one being recycled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vermont-based Beyond Plastics said Monday that most of the single-use, plastic cold beverage cups placed in recycling bins at Starbucks stores it recently tracked ended up in landfills or incinerators.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit advocacy group placed 69 Bluetooth-enabled trackers<\/a> inside Starbucks\u2019 in-store recycling bins. Of the 47 that provided data, 23 ended up in landfills and 11 wound up at incinerator facilities.<\/p>\n Beyond Plastics tracked Starbucks cups placed in recycling bins. Beyond Plastics<\/p>\n Ten more were last detected at waste transfer stations, a stop on the way to a landfill, and three made it to material recovery facilities, which sort plastics, possibly for recycling. But not a single cup was actually confirmed to be recycled, according to the group.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of stunning that they won\u2019t tell the public where this plastic is going after people dutifully make sure it\u2019s clean and put it in the special recycling bin,\u201d Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and a former regional administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, told The Post.<\/p>\n A Starbucks spokesperson told The Post the company takes issue with the study\u2019s methodology.<\/p>\n \u201cStudies that place electronic trackers inside cups do not reflect how recycling systems operate in practice,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n \u201cThese materials, like Bluetooth-enabled trackers, are not accepted in recycling streams and can introduce contamination, which may change where cups are routed.\u00a0Starbucks cups are designed to be recyclable, and have received a \u2018widely accepted for recycling\u2019\u00a0designation from How2Recycle.\u201d<\/p>\n Outraged environmentalists are planning nine demonstrations across the state this week, including ones in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, as they call on the java giant to stop spouting what the nonprofit called \u201crubbish claims.\u201d<\/p>\n Protesters are also urging lawmakers to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which would force companies like Starbucks to reduce their use of plastic packaging and reimburse municipalities for waste management costs.<\/p>\n In 2020, Starbucks pledged to make 100% of its customer packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of the decade. It started allowing US customers to bring their own reusable cups<\/a> for mobile and drive-through orders in 2024.<\/p>\n And in February, Starbucks published a joint press release with WM, the country\u2019s largest waste hauler, formerly known as Waste Management, announcing that its cold beverage cups \u2013 which are made with polypropylene, or No. 5 plastic \u2013 are now \u201cwidely recyclable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The nonprofit said it could not confirm a single Starbucks cup was actually recycled. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cRecycling your Starbucks cold cups just got easier,\u201d the company said in a statement, adding that more than 60% of US households could now recycle the cups in their curbside bins.<\/p>\n But one Starbucks cup included in the investigation last pinged at a waste facility in Peekskill, NY \u2013 the largest source of air pollution in Westchester County, according to Beyond Plastics.<\/p>\n \u201cStarbucks made $1.8 billion in profit in North America last year,\u201d said Courtney Williams, a cancer researcher who founded the Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions, which will speak at a protest in Peekskill this Saturday. \u201cHow much of that was made from polluting our air, soil and waterways with single use plastic?\u201d<\/p>\n Other cups that were recycled in New York City ended up in landfills as far away as Pennsylvania, Ohio and even Alabama. Waste exporting costs the city nearly half a billion dollars each year, according to the NYC Department of Sanitation.<\/p>\n Starbucks in February announced its cold beverage cups are now \u201cwidely recyclable.\u201d Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n Susan Keefe, the Southern California director for Beyond Plastics, estimated Starbucks goes through 8 million plastic cups each day, according to calculations based on the company\u2019s annual public data.<\/p>\n She said the investigation focused on Starbucks because it\u2019s a particularly flagrant offender, labeling trash bins in its stores with terms like \u201clandfill,\u201d \u201crecycling\u201d and \u201ccompost\u201d \u2013 even though most of it ends up in the landfill at the end.<\/p>\n \u201cThey go above and beyond chains like Dunkin\u2019, for example, [because] they actually customize the recycling bins, and this, I think, is deceptive and egregious,\u201d Keefe told The Post. \u201cI don\u2019t know of any restaurant that actually goes to that extent to deceive their customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm in September 2024, has been leading a turnaround plan focused on improving customer service and making stores more welcoming, hopeful that customers will be convinced to sit, relax and maybe order seconds.<\/p>\n In Starbucks stores, recycling cans are labeled. Beyond Plastics<\/p>\n The company has spent $1 billion to retrofit stores<\/a> with comfy armchairs, plants and hardcover books. It also brought back Sharpies to stores so baristas can doodle on cups; condiment bars; and reusable ceramic mugs for in-store customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Keefe claimed across visits to roughly 50 stores, maybe \u201cthe occasional one person\u201d was drinking from a reusable mug out of \u201cdozens and dozens\u201d of customers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just kind of irritates me because they\u2019re not even implementing and funding the policy that they announced a year and a half ago in their existing stores,\u201d Keefe said. When she asked customers whether they would consider drinking out of the mugs, many replied that they thought the mugs were for sale, she added.<\/p>\n Beyond Plastics is urging Starbucks to \u201cstop lying\u201d about its recycling policies, take down the recycling visuals in stores, switch from polypropylene cups to fiber-based cups and enforce their ceramic mug policy.<\/p>\n