Starbucks vows to go green to the end and will stop supplying plastic straws in all stores nationwide

Starbucks has vowed to "go green to the end" and will expand its initiative to stop supplying plastic straws from a thousand pilot stores to all stores in mainland China.

This move, which brought some "inconvenience" to Starbucks fans, has saved the earth millions of plastic straws that were originally intended to stay on the earth for 400 years in less than 80 days. Although some consumers were not used to it at first, Starbucks vowed to "go green all the way" and planned to expand the move to stop supplying plastic straws from the pilot thousand stores to all stores in mainland China.

Since Earth Day on April 22 this year, Starbucks has stopped supplying plastic straws in nearly 1,000 stores in Shanghai and Shenzhen. As an alternative, the store has launched direct drinking cup lids, which are suitable for iced drinks without cream, such as iced Americano, iced latte, etc., as well as iced shaken tea without fruit particles.

For those drinks that really require the use of straws, the store provides environmentally friendly paper straws.

At the beginning of the trial of stopping the supply of plastic straws, some Starbucks fans did feel uncomfortable. The reporter also experienced it personally and found that paper straws softened quickly. Generally, within half an hour of drinking, the straw head was severely worn or even broken. In this regard, Starbucks partners gave the advice to drink it as soon as possible.

Despite the complaints, Starbucks China has no intention of "giving in" on the issue of environmental protection. Recently, reporters saw in some Starbucks Jing'an stores that the plastic straws that customers used to use at the seasoning bar in the store have long disappeared.

All the tableware in the store has also been changed to stainless steel knives, forks and spoons.

More than two months have passed since the pilot, and Starbucks China will not cancel the pilot, but plans to fully implement it in all Starbucks stores in mainland China by the end of this year, thereby completing Starbucks' plastic reduction commitment of "stopping the use of plastic straws worldwide in 2020" in China ahead of schedule. According to a random survey conducted by Starbucks China in some stores, after more than two months of running-in, more and more Starbucks fans have gradually accepted this unchangeable fact, no longer asking "Where is my straw?", and said that they will try not to ask for plastic straws when buying drinks in other places.

In fact, in addition to selling coffee, Starbucks is not only the "cupware" maker that often pokes your heart, but also the first company to offer discounts to customers who bring their own reusable cups. Starting from April 25 this year, Starbucks launched a new category "Fun Ice Mix" series, and specially created 11 "Fun Ice Cups" with different patterns. The environmental code of these ice cups is that they can be reused at least 20 times.

Customers who keep the ice cup and use it as their own cup next time they visit the store can enjoy a 4 yuan discount. In addition, Starbucks China has encouraged customers to bring their own cups and enjoy discounts since its first store. On April 22, Earth Day every year, Starbucks China also offers a medium-sized freshly brewed coffee for free to every customer who brings their own cup to a designated store.

Every year on Earth Day, April 22, Starbucks China offers a free medium-sized cup of freshly brewed coffee to customers who bring their own cups to designated stores, and there are long queues.

In 2018 alone, Starbucks China accepted nearly 10,000 cups of beverages from customers using their own cups. Also in 2018, 817 Starbucks Rewards members used their own cups more than 100 times.

After the Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Regulations were officially implemented on July 1 this year, Starbucks partners in various stores have been very concerned about waste sorting and have done a lot of complicated sorting work. For example, if a customer leaves a cup of mojito in the store, Starbucks partners need to sort it out in multiple steps - lemons and mint leaves are wet waste, paper straws are dry waste, and the cup is recyclable...

So, how should discarded tea cups and ice cups be disposed of? According to store partners, the tea leaves in the tea bag are wet garbage, while the packaging bag is dry garbage, which needs to be unpacked and disposed of separately.

In the ice cup, the paper straw is considered dry garbage. If there is still residual food in the ice cup, you need to pour it into the wet garbage bin first, and then pour the ice cup and the lid into the recyclable garbage bin.

The treatment of coffee grounds is also very particular. Coffee grounds are wet garbage, while filter paper is dry garbage.

Of course, Starbucks partners will also encourage customers to "bring back your coffee grounds." Coffee grounds can be made into compost, can add fragrance to refrigerators and closets, and can be used as cold compresses to remove dark circles like the national treasure. Customers who consume in the store can ask Starbucks partners to take away a bag of coffee grounds to help coffee grounds become "re-employment" stars.