There is nothing I crave more in the morning than a very strong cup of java juice. So much, in fact, I have the coffee lover’s dream machine at home. Every morning, it grinds the beans, filters the water and presses out a very large helping of espresso strength coffee covered in the milky coffee head that only accompanies good coffee.
So there I was, sipping away at my morning nectar, sucking deeply on the café mocha vapor device while reading the current topics on my favorite websites. There it was, smack bang, center page, a large cardboard cup with the now world famous logo, Starbucks plastered on it, once again being reviled by some anti-business anti- coffee moron with an axe to grind. But wait, this was different. This time I hate to say, they may just have something here; the topic … What are they doing with the 4 billion paper cups they sell every year? That’s right 4 billion, that’s a B … for billion.
Never one to simply take such a solid and staggeringly sized number or the problem that is bound to accompany it that lightly, I read on. To my absolute horror I read that they are not recycling them. What, you’ve got to be kidding right? Why I wondered, perhaps the problem is just too vast … the cost is too high. What to do? In a comment made by Starbucks in response to being questioned as to why they had failed to meet their illustrious 7-year goal of implementing recycling programs in all their stores, they say, “Recycling seems like a simple, straightforward initiative – but it’s actually quite challenging”. Sounds like double talk to me.
Starbucks claims the cost is too high; the recyclers can’t make it financially viable unless their paper cups that have a plastic liner to stop them leaking (the cause of the problem is removing it) are delivered in sufficient numbers. They can’t make it financially viable? FOUR BILLION, I’m going to say it again, FOUR BILLION, what does the number have to be to be considered “sufficient quantity”?
perhaps it’s not all Starbucks fault.