Starbucks allows personal cups for all US, Canada orders

From January 3, 2024, Starbucks began allowing customers across the US and Canada to use personal cups for all orders, including drive-thru and mobile, advancing its goal to halve cup waste sent to landfills by 2030. The reusables push illustrates how consumer brands operationalize waste-reduction targets, relevant to Indian food-service and retail companies under packaging-waste scrutiny.

Starting January 3, 2024, Starbucks allowed customers to use their own clean personal cups for every visit across company-operated and participating licensed stores in the US and Canada, including drive-thru, the Starbucks app and in-store cafe purchases. Starbucks became the sole national US coffeehouse to permit personal cups on mobile orders and the first in Canada to offer mobile orders for all drinks and sizes. The move realizes a 2022 goal to simplify reusable cup use, supporting Starbucks' commitment to reduce cup waste sent to landfills by 50% by 2030.

The initiative most directly affects Starbucks' US and Canada store operations and customers, the majority of whom consume beverages on-the-go, presenting a substantial opportunity to shift toward reusables. Store partners helped co-design custom reusable cup smallware now used in all stores to transfer orders to personal cups. The development is relevant to the broader food-service and quick-service retail sector evaluating reusable-packaging programs, building on more than 20 reusable-option tests Starbucks has conducted in stores globally, with additional tests planned.

Food-service and retail companies should monitor how operationalizing reusables across high-volume channels like drive-thru and mobile affects waste-reduction performance against targets. Indian food-service and retail firms facing packaging-waste and extended producer responsibility pressures can study Starbucks' co-design approach with store staff and its phased testing, including a successful personal-cup test at 200 Colorado drive-thru stores. Stakeholders should track progress toward the 50%-by-2030 landfill-cup-waste reduction goal and the outcomes of further planned reusable tests.

Key figure — Waste target: cut cup waste sent to landfills by 50% by 2030