drive thru starbucks near my current location

'It is one aspect of the customer experience that is really valuable to the brand and to the customers as well,' McFarlane said. Starbucks wants the cup to be at least partially see-through. That’s a concern for the brand optics of Starbucks’ cold drinks - which have bright, distinct colors. While Starbucks considered making them from recycled plastic, there isn’t enough food-grade recycled material of this sort on the market to make that economically viable, McFarlane said.Īnother downside of the recycled plastic available today is that it is often opaque or colored, which means the liquid inside can’t be seen, he said. Manufactured in Europe, they can be used for hot or cold drinks, and come in three standard sizes. The reusable cups being used in tests are made from new polypropylene that is tough, light and can be recycled if a customer throws them out instead of returning them. Virgin plastic looks like the most viable material option Rather, it’s the ultimate extension of a policy Starbucks pioneered in 1985, when it started offering 10-cent discounts to people bringing personal cups for orders.Īs it inches toward the 2025 deadline to introduce a formal cup-borrowing program, here are the six biggest takeaways from Starbucks’ tests so far: 1.

None of this means Starbucks will be close to ditching single-use options by next year, although it’s moving faster in certain markets, such as South Korea, where it will eliminate single-use cups by 2025 because of government policies. 'We need to do all of the things … because we’re talking about motivating behavior changes to the masses and not to the people who are passionate about this stuff,' said Chris McFarlane, global responsibility adviser for waste and circularity at Starbucks, during a tour of the Seattle headquarters in June. And how to convince customers to return cups they’ve 'borrowed' from stores.Have they been rinsed before they’re deposited?.How to collect and clean cups after they have been used?.What are the most durable and practical materials for reuse?.Source: StarbucksĪmong the factors Starbucks is studying through its Tryer Center Innovation Lab are: The Tryer Lab at Starbucks headquarters in Seattle. and its Seattle headquarters, where more than 3,750 employees are based. To push reusables, Starbucks is testing models for 100 percent reusable cups in more than 25 markets, including stores in Arizona, California and Colorado sites in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the U.K. If the company succeeds, it will replace all its single-use cardboard cups with reusable cups that can withstand 1,000 wash cycles. It has plenty of incentive to make this happen: While Starbucks doesn’t disclose how many disposable cups it goes through annually, a spokeswoman said they account for 40 percent of the company’s packaging annually and 20 percent of its waste footprint. The effort is part of Starbucks’ strategic plan to make all is packaging reusable, compostable or recyclable by 2030.Ĭonsidering just 1.2 percent of Starbucks drinks were served in reusable containers, as of an April update, the company has a lot of work to do in a little over six years to achieve that goal on a worldwide basis. That goes for orders placed at cafe counters, in drive-throughs or via the mobile app.

customers order hot or cold drinks poured into reusable cups by early 2024.

Drive thru starbucks near my current location