2Sustain

Starbucks wants 100 percent of its cups to be reusable or recyclable by 2015.

And, last month the company completed a six-week pilot project that brings it one step closer to reaching that goal.

Starbucks, working in partnership with International Paper and Mississippi River Pulp, LLC, proved that its used paper cups can be recycled into new paper cups. The successful pilot project means that used cup material generated by Starbucks (and other retailers) has potential value in the recycling industry.

“This innovation represents an important milestone in our journey,” Jim Hanna, Starbucks director of Environmental Impact, said. “We still have a lot of work to do to reach our 2015 goal, but we’re now in a much stronger position to build momentum across the recycling industry. Our next step is to test this concept in a major city, which we plan to do in collaboration with International Paper and Mississippi River in 2011.”

Starbucks is a pioneer in what’s known as the “cup-to-cup” concept. The company launched the industry’s first paper cup containing post-consumer recycled fiber (PCF) in 2006, following several years of collaboration with Mississippi River, the only pulp mill in the US that has successfully recycled used cups into fiber suitable for producing new cups. (more…)

Starbucks wants mayors and other municipal leaders to evaluate and improve local commercial and residential recycling systems, so that the company can develop what it calls a “comprehensive recyclable cup solution” by 2012.

Starbucks made the pitch last week at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.

As I’m sure you realize, current recycling capabilities vary considerably from city to city and county to county. So, Starbucks is looking  to partner with a variety of groups –including municipal governments, raw materials suppliers, cup manufacturers, retail and beverage partners, recyclers, environmental NGOs and experts from the academic sector –to rethink recycling programs and create sustainable systems that can work across its entire nation-wide value chain.

“Scalability is critical. We can only achieve it if we take a holistic approach and join forces with our entire value chain,” says Jim Hanna, Starbucks director of Environmental Impact. “Mayors are uniquely positioned to mobilize stakeholders at a grassroots level and help drive solutions that will make our cups and other packaging more broadly recyclable in form and in practice.”

(more…)