Last week, Starbucks held a Cup Summit, according to Green Biz. A Cup Summit? Yep.

 

Starbucks invited “30 cup, cupstock and coating manufacturers, recyclers, waste managers and university researchers to Seattle” to talk about recyclable cups. Each year, coffee drinkers dispose of more 200 billion paper coffee cups, and 3 billion of them come from Starbucks.

 

Ben Packard, Starbucks vice president of Global Responsibility, wants to change that and make sure that all the companies cups are easily recyclable by 2012.

 

Topics that were addressed at the cup summit:

 

Summit participants agreed that it's time to develop a new "standard" disposable cup in the industry that takes into consideration the container's end of life.

 

It’s good that as a corporation, Starbucks sees its responsibilities on this issue. I think that consumers need to see their responsibility on this issue, too, though.

 

The easiest way to keep disposable coffee cups out of landfills is to not use them. There are hundreds of reusable travel coffee mugs on the market that can be purchased for under $20. Most workers in coffee shops (also known as baristas as they are called in hip coffee shops) are more than happy to take a minute to rinse out your reusable mug if it needs it. One reusable coffee mug can keep hundreds of paper cups out of landfills each  year.