Good on you, Starbucks

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The global publicity given to the Starbucks $1 reusable and the message it sends to Starbucks customers, staff and the wider community is extremely powerful.

This move by Starbucks, however, is a response to change in consumer sentiment about what behaviour is acceptable. So, let's keep our fingers firmly crossed that it may foreshadow big changes in the Starbucks service model. Personally, I still doubt it.

However, I have not, as yet, seen those cups as to say how good they are and how long they may last, eventually. It also would appear that they do not have arrived in the Starbucks outlets in Britain; at least not as yet.

With over one million disposable cups discarded to landfill every second, we all need to rally to change our behaviour from discard, to reduce and reuse.

The best reusable is the one you use. But many reusable mugs that people bring along – if they do – to coffee shops and -bar do not fit under the machines and thus, more often then not, the barista will, actually, first fill a disposable cup with which to then decant the coffee into the reusable mug.

We do, I believe, still have to see how the Starbucks reusable cups perform and how well they last and, above all, as to whether they can be used in other coffee house chains.

Theoretically you should not have any problems across the chains with a reusable barista standard cup such as the KeepCup and thus I still recommend that anyone considering a reusable invest in one of those. (And no, I am not getting paid by KeepCup for endorsing their products; I just like them).

© 2013