Starbucks pilots NextGen cup but says no to reusables, for now
Image credit: Starbucks
This week, in its ongoing
quest
to find a sustainable solution to single-use coffee cup waste, Starbucks
began piloting a new, compostable and recyclable hot cup concept in select
stores in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, New York and
London.
The new cups are lined with BioPBS™ — a solution for all coated paper
packaging to make it recyclable or home compostable — created by one of the 12
winners
of the NextGen Cup Challenge, of which Starbucks is a founding member.
Starbucks said it is also continuing to work with Closed Loop Partners, the
NextGen Cup Consortium and other businesses on continuing to test and
validate the recyclability of solutions from some of the other challenge
winners, including the BioPBS™ cup; as well as with key stakeholders in the
recycling industry to advocate for increasing the overall recyclability of cups
and ensure they are ultimately accepted within municipalities.
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But in what feels like one-step-forward,-two-steps-back-type development,
Starbucks
announced
last week it has suspended the use of reusable beverage containers due to
COVID-19
concerns.
During this time, it will not serve beverage in customers’ personal cups or the
store’s own “for here” cups, but it will continue to honor the 10-cent discount
for anyone who brings in or asks for a reusable cup.
Starbucks has been joined by
Dunkin’
in the US, and Tim Hortons and Second
Cup
in Canada, in halting use of reusable cups (though Second Cup says it will
still use its own ceramic mugs for in-store drinks); and McDonald’s has done
the same for its locations throughout Australia and New
Zealand.
No telling how long the outbreak will last or how much additional materials
waste will be created in the meantime.
Lucozade Sport offering London gym-goers zero-waste hydration option
Image credit: LRS
Meanwhile, UK soft-drink manufacturer Lucozade Ribena
Suntory (LRS) —
maker of Lucozade Sport, Orangina and other popular beverages — is
testing a unique packaging concept for vending machines at David Lloyd
Hampton gym in South West London.
LRS recently partnered with Notpla, maker of the
Ooho
— an edible and biodegradable, seaweed-based beverage packaging solution — to
explore alternatives to conventional plastic bottles. LRS first trialed Oohos at
large-scale sporting events last year, including the 2019 London Marathon,
at which over 36,000 30-ml Lucozade Sport Oohos were given away — and they were
a hit with
runners:
A survey at the event found that 82% of those who tried Oohos filled with
Lucozade Sport found them “appealing” or “very appealing.”
Now, thanks to funding from Innovate
UK,
LRS and Notpla have created a specialized vending machine that can dispense
30-ml Oohos containing Lucozade Sport. The machine can dispense up to 3,000
Oohos per day.
The vending machine trial kicks off the same week that LRS confirmed plans to
offer Oohos at nine more sporting events this year, including the London
Marathon Expo.
While good things are known to come in small packages, that may not translate
for those needing to hydrate: As of now, Oohos can only hold up to 100ml (~3.4
fl oz), so we’ll see how viable they are as a scalable beverage packaging
solution.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Mar 11, 2020 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET