SEATTLE, WA, U.S. – Stand (formerly ForestEthics) has launched the Better Starbucks Cup Campaign demanding the coffee giant make good on earlier commitments to stop destroying forests.
Starbucks serves four billion disposable coffee cups each year. Stand estimates that 1.6 million trees are logged for the cups, which are 10 percent recycled content and, in most locations, cannot be recycled.
Stand, the Bellingham, WA-based advocacy group launched the Better Cup campaign in Seattle today with actions at Starbucks headquarters, 30 Seattle Starbucks locations, and the Emerald City ComicCon convention, the 80,000 person comic convention.
Stand is distributing a comic book introducing a new mermaid superhero that springs to life from the logo on a discarded Starbucks cup. The animated Super Mermaid confronts a Starbucks employee and destroys a coffee cup monster that threatens to “bury the City of Seattle” in coffee cups.
“The green mermaid cup is Starbucks’ #1 icon, and it’s biggest environmental problem,” says Stand executive director Todd Paglia. “In 2008 Starbucks said it would solve the problem by making cups recyclable, increasing recycled content of the cups, and serving more coffee in reusable cups.
The company missed every one of its internal goals, and has now given up and gone quiet on fixing the problem. Stand is going to help Starbucks recommit and live up to its promise to do the right thing for its customers and our forests.”
Stand is demanding a better cup. The campaign asks Starbucks to make good on commitment for 100% recyclable cups, recommit to 25% reuse, commit to 100% post-consumer recycled and/or tree-free cups, and adopt and implement a policy of no-net-impact on forests.
“Success lies in building on the work Starbucks has already begun — more forward-thinking collaborations, better technology, and innovative approaches,” says Paglia. “For example, Starbucks currently uses plastic liners for paper cups, making then not recyclable.
If anyone knows how to deliver what customers want, it is Starbucks. And Starbucks customers want a better cup.”
Live updates and photos on Twitter SBBetterCup and Facebook.com/standearth
