Starbucks Introduces $1 Reusable Plastic Cup

NEW YORK – Starting Thursday, Starbucks Corp. introduced its $1 reusable plastic coffee cups in stores across the nation and in Canada.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the Seattle-based coffee chain is trying to reduce waste by offering customers a 10-cent discount every time they bring the reusable cup in for refills. Boiling water is used to sanitize the cups, which bear the Starbucks logo and resemble white paper cups.

"We will continue to provide reusable options in all stores with seating and find creative ways to raise awareness for this important, everyday waste-reduction opportunity," stated the Seattle-based company on its website. "We challenge ourselves, [and] our partners to use reusable cups and remain committed to exploring new ways to reduce our cup waste."

600 Starbucks stores in the Pacific Northwest featured the cups over the past few months. The company said it has seen an increase of more than 55 percent in personal tumbler use over the past three years in its stores around the world, but had difficulty tracking its "for here" serveware.

"Because of these challenges and the fact the majority of beverages are consumed outside of our stores, we are resetting our goal to focus on increasing the use of personal tumblers," the company stated.

In 2011, Starbucks saw personal tumblers used more than 34 million times in its stores in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Ireland, which saved more than 1.5 million pounds of paper from landfills.

Starbucks' new goal is to serve 5 percent of all beverages made in its stores in reusable cups by 2015, a substantial revision of its 2008 goal that was set at 25 percent.

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