Starbucks: Stop Trying to Deceive the Public about Plastic Cup Recyclability
Starbucks is the world's largest coffee chain, serving millions of people at 40,000+ stores worldwide. More than 75% of Starbucks' U.S. beverage sales are cold drinks, usually served in polypropylene (No. 5 plastic) cups, generating enormous single-use plastic waste.
Starbucks touts its plastic cups as “widely recyclable” despite the fact that there are few facilities in the country that recycle polypropylene plastic, and many U.S. Starbucks stores lack recycling bins.
To test Starbucks’ claim that its single-use cold cups are recyclable, Beyond Plastics conducted a nationwide tracker investigation, covering 21 states. After three months of tracking in 2026, not even one discarded cup ended up at a plastics recycling facility. You can learn more about the investigation and view the data here.
Join us in holding Starbucks accountable for attempting to deceive the public about the recyclability of its plastic cold-beverage cups by signing the petition to CEO Brian Niccol now. ✍️
To: Starbucks CEO, Brian Niccol cc: California Attorney General Rob Bonta
Starbucks proudly claims that its single-use plastic cups are "widely recyclable" via a new partnership with WM (formerly known as Waste Management). However, a new nationwide cup-tracking investigation by Beyond Plastics found this claim to be deceptive. Not one of the discarded cups tracked in the three-month investigation ended up at a recycling facility.
Instead, 16 cups ended up in landfills, nine ended up at incinerator facilities, and nine were last detected at waste-transfer stations, a stop on the way to a landfill. Zero cups ended up at a recycling facility.
Rather than continuing to pour money into public-relations efforts to deceive consumers about the recyclability of its plastic cold cups, we urge Starbucks to make the following three changes to actually reduce the amount of single-use plastic waste it adds to the environment each day.
We call on Starbucks to:
1. Immediately stop deceiving the public about plastics recycling at Starbucks stores by removing the recycling images of plastic cups from in-store recycling bins.
2. Train employees to follow Starbucks' “A Better Cup for All”¹ policy by serving ALL customers who order inside their company-owned stores in a reusable ceramic mug or glass cup, unless the customer specifically requests a to-go cup. Although Starbucks says this is their policy, the reusable containers are often not offered.
3. Implement a nationwide switch from plastic to fiber-based to-go cups and lids, just as the company has already done in more than 550 stores across 14 states.²
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1. A Better Cup for All: https://about.starbucks.com/a-better-cup-for-all/
2. CBS News: Starbucks Changes Cups in Wake of KCAL Investigation, March 2025: https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/starbucks-switches-to-compostable-cups-in-more-than-a-dozen-states/