I’ve been spending a lot of time at Starbucks lately. It’s my go-to writing spot when the tv or cats get too distracting. Since I end up hogging a table for hours on end, I “pay rental” by purchasing a cup of hot tea. So when Starbucks unveiled their new cup, touting it’s inexpensive price and the drink discount, I thought “Okay, time to be a good, environmentally responsible dooby and purchase a cup.”
So I did.
The cup is not a high-density plastic. I suppose that’s the point. They want a cup that will biodegrade. It’s not flimsy, though, either. I’d say the cup uses a medium-density plastic. The cost for lid & cup is $1.00 (plus local sales tax) and anyone who brings it in gets .10 cents off their drink. Starbucks even claims in the press release that the barristas clean out the cups with boiling water each time you visit. Sounds like a good deal, right?
Hang on. There were a few things missing from that press release.
As far as the barristas washing out the cups every time? I love my locals, they are very good to me and treat me like I’m the only customer that exists (they do that to everyone who walks into the store). But they don’t wash these cups. Not unless they are asked to. So I strongly advise washing your own cups between visits just to make sure. (Not that barbaric coffee drinkers ever wash their cups. I’ve seen enough moldfarm experiments at work to prove that fact. @=)
Two weeks after my purchase I learned (overheard a barrista telling another customer) that Starbucks recommends you buy a new cup once a month, that’s every 30 days, because washing the cup in your household dishwasher actually contributes to the “biodegradation” process. Basically, the dishwasher will warp your cup beyond usability or take off the protective inner lining or something. Well, it’s a good thing I hand wash my cups then. And I only chose to do so because it actually is too flimsy to go into a dishwasher and survive the experience.
Keeping that fact in mind, though, is $1.00 a good price for the cup? Well if you drink at least 10 cups of coffee / tea / whatever within that 30 day timeframe, it could be. But are you driving out of your way to go to Starbucks just because you have the .10 cent off cup? If so, then it looks like less of a good deal. And you’re still throwing the cup away. You’re just not throwing a lot of paper cups away.
Pop Quiz! Which biodegrades faster? Plastic or Paper?
And then there’s this little caveat:
Wait, what’s this?
“May not be recyclable in your area.”
So these are recyclable cups, are they? Created to save the universe from the trash of the elitist coffee / tea drink? But we may not be able to recycle them at all. Huh.
And then there’s the annoying sleeve factor. The cup actually says “Please use a cup sleeve” on it. But when you do, and you have a hot beverage in said cup, guess what happens?
The sleeves, they have issues.
Hot glue is such a wonderful, and cheap, craft tool that holds a lot of things together. Unfortunately, it melts really easy when exposed to heat. Did no one tell Starbucks this? Oh, wait. We never noticed because we were throwing out the paper cups (to which the paper sleeves had adhered) in the trash.
So, Starbucks’ new recyclable cup… Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I guess that depends on how often you visit the chain, if you care about drink discounts or environmentalism, and if hot glue residue annoys you or not.
Me, I’m going to grouse at the reside, wash my cups by hand, and hope I don’t have to replace them anytime soon.
