- Reaction score
- 1,936
Watchdog group glued trackers to 53 of the chain’s cups across nine states and found none ended up at a recycling facility
If you attach a GPS tracker to a “widely recyclable” plastic Starbucks cup and drop it in an in-store recycling bin, you might expect it to end up in a recycling plant, but the environmental watchdog organization Beyond Plastics says that’s not the case in a new report.
Starbucks announced that their plastic cups were now considered “widely recyclable” earlier this year, according to How2Recycle, a group affiliated with the consumer packaging industry that helps private companies label their packaging with recycling options. The coffee giant touted the achievement as a “big milestone, with huge impact”.
In response, researchers and volunteers with Beyond Plastics, whose mission is to “end plastic pollution everywhere”, conducted an investigation between January and March 2026 to determine whether the plastic Starbucks to-go cups for cold drinks were actually being recycled.
“I used Bluetooth-enabled trackers,” said study lead Susan Keefe. “And I glued them into the cups using Gorilla Glue and dropped them into the actual custom-labeled recycling bins in the Starbucks stores. And then you can follow them on your phone.”
www.theguardian.com
If you attach a GPS tracker to a “widely recyclable” plastic Starbucks cup and drop it in an in-store recycling bin, you might expect it to end up in a recycling plant, but the environmental watchdog organization Beyond Plastics says that’s not the case in a new report.
Starbucks announced that their plastic cups were now considered “widely recyclable” earlier this year, according to How2Recycle, a group affiliated with the consumer packaging industry that helps private companies label their packaging with recycling options. The coffee giant touted the achievement as a “big milestone, with huge impact”.
In response, researchers and volunteers with Beyond Plastics, whose mission is to “end plastic pollution everywhere”, conducted an investigation between January and March 2026 to determine whether the plastic Starbucks to-go cups for cold drinks were actually being recycled.
“I used Bluetooth-enabled trackers,” said study lead Susan Keefe. “And I glued them into the cups using Gorilla Glue and dropped them into the actual custom-labeled recycling bins in the Starbucks stores. And then you can follow them on your phone.”
Starbucks does not recycle plastic cups it claims are ‘widely recyclable’, report says
Watchdog group glued trackers to 53 of the chain’s cups across nine states and found none ended up at a recycling facility
