Demonstrations at 22 Starbucks stores across 11 states called on the coffee giant to stop lying about plastics recyling

Demonstrators at 22 Starbucks stores across 11 states called on the coffee giant to stop telling customers its single-use plastic cold cups are “widely recyclable,” after a nationwide tracking investigation by Beyond Plastics could not confirm that a single cup was recycled.

The demonstrations in Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, California, Illinois, Colorado, Washington and Texas were part of a Starbucks Week of Action urging the company to stop making deceptive recycling claims that give customers the false impression that plastic cold cups deposited in their store recycling bins are recycled.

“Customers who carefully put their Starbucks cup into a recycling bin with an image of a plastic cold cup on it reasonably expect it to be recycled,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and a former EPA regional administrator, who plans to join the demonstration at an Albany, NY, store Saturday. “Our investigation found something very different. Not one of the cups we successfully tracked was confirmed recycled. Starbucks needs to stop misleading customers about plastic recycling and focus instead on reducing single-use plastic and expanding reusable and plastic-free alternatives.”

Beyond Plastics, its partners, and demonstrators nationwide are calling on Starbucks to:

Stop portraying its plastic cold cups as “widely recyclable”: Starbucks cannot demonstrate this and must remove the images from its recycling bins.
Honor the company’s existing reusable policy: Serve customers in reusable mugs and glasses if they are staying in the store. Starbucks’ workers should be provided with the equipment and time to implement corporate policy.
Swap Plastic for Fiber: Implement a nationwide transition from plastic to fiber-based to-go cups and lids, a system already being used at more than 550 Starbucks stores in the United States and in the European Union.

In addition to the demonstrations, Beyond Plastics, CALPIRG, and The Story of Stuff Project have collected more than 14,000 signatures on petitions directed to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, urging the company to reduce its reliance on single-use plastics.

Check out some highlights and fun photos below and read the full press release here.

Newport Beach, CA. Alongside members of The Story of Stuff Project, CALPIRG, CALPIRG-UCI Chapter, and Starbucks Workers United, we held a demonstration outside CEO Brian Niccol’s Newport Beach office, urging Starbucks to stop deceiving the public about the recyclability of its plastic cups and to ditch plastic.

We also brought three organizational petitions signed by more than 14,000 people, but security barricaded the building and refused to let even one representative from our group access the building to hand-deliver the petitions to Mr. Niccol's office. Regardless, we made our message clear: Starbucks must be held accountable for its deceptive claims and environmental harms. And we stand with Starbucks Workers United in their quest for a fair contract. LA Times coverage here.

Albany, NY. Beyond Plastics founder Judith Enck spoke with Spectrum News 1 about our Starbucks plastic cup recycling investigation, which found no confirmed evidence that Starbucks recycles its plastic cups. Spectrum coverage here.

Tempe, AZ. At the demonstration, Julie Morrison, founder of Plastic Free Phoenix, and Arizona State Representative Stacey Travers spoke about the need to ditch plastic for our personal, communal, and planetary health.

Philadelphia, PA. Advocates are outraged that four cups placed in Starbucks-branded recycling bins went to the incinerator in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Environmental justice groups in the region have been mobilizing to pass the “Stop Trashing Our Air Act,” a local bill that would ban Philadelphia from contracting with any company that incinerates its solid waste or recyclables. The advocates stress that when companies falsely portray their plastic as recyclable, it undermines momentum for real legislative solutions.