Harsh Lesson Learned At The Coffee Shop

Photo Credit: Flicker/JcOlivera.com

I woke up this past beautiful Sunday morning feeling great and planning how I could be sustainable for the day.  Since it was so beautiful outside, I decided to walk to the grocery store to buy some fruits and veggies for the day and pick up some morning drinks from the Starbucks in the store.  I usually just have drip coffee but my son loves the strawberries and cream frappuccino drinks.  I think they have too much sugar and taste terrible, but he likes them and this isn’t the point of my story. 

I prepared for my short journey, gathered up the reusable mugs and cups in my reusable bag and put on my walking shoes for my three block trek to the store.  The day was starting out just as one of those visions you may have about what your life would look like when everything goes as planned and you have plenty of time to do sustainable things.  You know, those fantasies that busy women have about having it all together. . .

But that vision came to a screeching halt when at the Starbucks, I saw something that disturbed me horribly.  Even though I had brought in a perfectly good cup, the barista was using a disposable cup to prepare my son’s drink!  She poured the liquids in the disposable cup, transferred them to the blender and then threw that cup away!  I was so horrified that I had to say something to the cashier.  Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Me:  “Why is she using a disposable cup? I brought my own cup for that!”

Cashier: “Oh, the cups have the measurements on them so that we know how much of the liquids to pour.”

Me: “Isn’t there another way?”

Cashier: “Don’t worry, you will still get your personal cup discount.”

Me: “I don’t care about the cup discount; I bring my own cup because I don’t want to waste a cup.”

Quite a disappointing exchange.  I know that many people in the world don’t hold the same sustainability values as I do, but it was shocking to see that someone would think that the ten cent discount was what would motivate a person to go to the trouble to bring their own cup in.

In all fairness to Starbucks, I am not sure if this is an issue isolated to this particular location, or if this is the standard procedure at all stores.  Furthermore, I know that the Starbucks you find in your grocery store has different ways of operating than the independent Starbucks location, so perhaps more investigation is required.  Regardless, the Starbucks website speaks of a goal to serve 25% of drinks in reusable cups by the year 2015.  If they want to achieve this goal, and if their motivation is a reduction in waste, then they can’t ignore the cups they use behind the scenes.

The solution seems simple – develop some kind of reusable device for holding liquids.  This device could have marks to indicate how much of said liquids should be poured for each drink.  Oh wait, that's a measuring cup.  We already have that technology.

Eco Home Consultations provides green living consultation services in the Seattle area, focusing on practical ways to integrate green living into your household.  Learn more at www.ecohomeconsults.com or email questions about this blog or other green living issues to Melissa@ecohomeconsults.com.