Recycling. It’s the #1 topic of feedback we get from our customers and partners surrounding our environmental performance—from MyStarbucskIdea.com and through all of our other feedback channels.

And it makes sense. We sell a lot of our products in disposable containers and everyone wants to do the right thing when they’re done, recycle the waste.

While we’d like the solution to be as simple as putting recycling bins in all of our stores, the world of garbage and recycling is currently a complicated one.

For private garbage collection and recycling, this is entirely controlled by your city or county governments, who either manage it directly or contract it out to private “haulers.” These local authorities can mandate whether or not the haulers have to collect paper, glass, plastics, compostable wastes, etc.

Conversely, for commercial recycling (like at a Starbucks) the items that get collected are almost always driven by the open market. If the haulers can get a good price for recyclable materials (cardboard, glass, plastic, food-contaminated paper products), they’ll collect it from local businesses. But if they can’t get a good price—or when there’s not a critical mass of materials to collect—they won’t collect them. There’s no financial payback for them. That’s why you see different levels of recycling at different Starbucks stores.

So, what can we do and what can you do to reduce the environmental impact of your Starbucks experience? Let’s focus on three things…

1. Hold us accountable. If you see your baristas throwing away cardboard or milk jugs, ask them if they’re getting recycled. If not, ask them why. You may find out that your community still has no recycling, even for these items. Or, it could turn out that our landlord in the building controls the garbage and doesn’t provide that service. Or, the garbage may be commingled with the recyclable materials, to be sorted offsite later. Or, it may turn out that the store manager simply hasn’t inquired yet about setting up recycling services – if this is the case, ask them to do it!
2. Hold your local government accountable. If commercial recycling services are nonexistent in your communities, let your local government officials know that they ought to address the issue. Even though commercial recycling is subject to market conditions, many of the haulers are the same companies that pick up your recycling at your house. Often local solid waste agencies can “ask” the haulers to provide better commercial services as part of their lucrative residential recycling contracts. In the next few weeks, we’ll provide some resources to help you find the right local government people to contact.
3. Bring you own. Do what you can to reduce the amount of garbage generated in the first place. Bring your reusable commuter mug to your favorite Starbucks and we’ll give you 10 cents off the price of your drink. Or, if you’re hanging out at Starbucks with your friends or your laptop, think about asking for your drink in a ceramic “for-here” mug. Every little bit helps!

So, thanks for all your comments. Finding better ways to enhance our in-store recycling is a big issue for us at Starbucks too. The solutions aren’t simple, but together we’ll find them.

Jim Hanna
environmental affairs manager

There have been some fun and interesting ideas posted surrounding Starbucks and travel. Take a look and let us know what you think…

Starbucks map of the world

Passport

Starbucks Maps

In case you didn’t notice, the site has a few new updates. One of them… pagination! We are at 3,704 pages of ideas and counting—and now you can actually navigate your way through them all.

For those of you who’ve thought, “I’d like to see something new in the top five,” you can breathe a sigh of relief. Ideas that are << Under Review >> are now “locked” so users can no longer vote or comment on them in the “View all Ideas” tab. This will allow new ideas to rise to the top. Hooray! (We’ll be moving locked ideas to our new and improved, two-way Ideas in Action blog—coming soon—and you can continue the conversation there.)

And finally, you will now be able to easily tell which comments are coming from our Idea Partners because they are orange. You’ll also notice that some Idea Partner comments are anchored to the top of the comment stream. These comments will be more global, so keep your eyes out for those.

We’re very happy to point out that two of your most popular ideas have been put “Under Review” this week. Here they are:

DARK ROAST, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY! Bold coffee lovers, we hear you. In just three short weeks, your idea has rocketed to the number two spot (remember that popularity is based on a combination of votes and time on the site—less time with more votes equals more popularity). Dkrst, your efforts to lobby the group have paid off.

A Penny to Fight PKD This was one of the first ideas on the site to get real traffic and in more than six weeks, it’s held its place in the top five. So thanks to Sandra Andersen’s amazing generosity, a score of 26,860 and your 599 comments, it made it into review.

Greetings Partners and Customers. There has been a lot of discussion about our dress code—certainly on the partner site, but also on the customer site. We wanted to let you all know that this idea is officially “under review”. This includes a host of ideas on the partner site from posts about tattoos to “Casual Fridays”. Stay tuned for updates!

Just a quick post to the hundreds of you that have participated in the “great conversations” idea. We’ve put together a cross functional team over here to figure out how to put this idea in action—and we’ll likely be asking you some questions in the comment stream to get more of your thoughts. So be on the look out for those. We’re excited about this idea and how it could come to life. Thanks for all of your great input on this one!

I love this idea that was posted by Twyloo a couple of weeks ago: Re-invent British "afternoon tea" - Starbucks style. It’s got me dreaming of warm scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream. What do you think, tea drinkers?

Many of you have commented on the idea called “The Road Trip” and you’ve probably noticed that we’ve put it Under Review. I wanted to let you know that we actually have a similar feature on Starbucks.com. If you go to our Store Locator and click on the “Find Route” tab you can check it out. (You’ll have to use IE or Firefox. Sorry Safari users!)

It is a handy tool for road tripping. Take a look and let us know what you think (add your comments to “The Road Trip” so we’ll be able to find them). And rest assured, we are looking into this idea.