Starbucks launches compostable cups in 14 states, sparking debateStarbucks launches compostable cups in 14 states, sparking debate

Starbucks is receiving backlash online for rolling out new compostable hot and cold cups to cafes in select stores across 14 states. The opaque-flat-top cups are getting criticized for multiple reasons by baristas and customers online, who claim that the cups are flimsy, hard to drink out of without spilling and ruin the aesthetic for a social media photo.

Starbucks confirmed with Nation’s Restaurant News that these cups are not being rolled out nationally and instead have only been introduced in select stores across 14 states to comply with local mandates that ban or limit single-use plastics. The states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Carolina, Virginia,  and Washington. While Starbucks is working on a hyper-localized level to comply with city or county mandates, some of these states have passed plastics restrictions. California, for example, is requiring that all single-use plastics be recyclable or compostable by 2032, and the State of Washington now restricts foodservice businesses from automatically providing single-use food serviceware.

According to Starbucks, the compostable cups are fiber-based and part of Starbucks’ “ambitious goal for [its] cups to be 100% compostable, recyclable, or reusable, sourced from 50% recycled materials, and made using 50% less virgin fossil fuel derived sources by 2030.”

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Despite these noble sustainability-driven intentions, the compostable cups have not exactly been popular on social media, with one Reddit post calling them a “crime against coffee” and that the drink tasted like “soggy cardboard.”  

Starbucks acknowledged that its first design of compostable cups might not be a home run by saying, “Our newest cups and lids are our initial response, and we are committed to improving them. As an alternative, customers are welcome to bring in their clean, personal reusable cup or order their beverage ‘for here’ to have their beverage served in a ceramic mug or glass.”

This is just one of many steps the coffee chain has taken to reduce its environmental impact. Starbucks became part of the U.S. Food Waste Pact last month, and last year joined other restaurants in piloting a reusable cups program with NextGen Consortium.

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