New Redesigned Starbucks Cups Are Coming Soon
The next time you enjoy your favorite drink at Starbucks in Walt DIsney World, it may be out of a newly designed cup.
Starbucks announced this past Thursday that its cold beverage cups are getting a makeover. The new rollout will be coming this May for locations in the United States and Canada.
New Design
Starbucks will debut new disposable cups to combat the 35 million pounds of plastic its customers create with their iced beverages.
Amelia Landers, Starbucks’ vice president of product innovation, shared, “Engineers tested thousands of iterations to see how much plastic they could remove while still making the cup feel sturdy. We feel like it´s industry-leading…It´s the best expression of a cold plastic cup.”
The Seattle-based company spent the last four years developing these new cups. They are excited to bring them to the public and help the environment.
What is Changing?
Both hot and cold beverage cups currently contain Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that can potentially cause health problems.
The current plastic cups contain polypropylene (PP). This type of polymer is versatile and easy to recycle, but it often ends up in a landfill, where it takes 20 -30 years to decompose.
Though Starbucks has not released what materials are in the new cups, the new design will save up to 20% plastic.
The cups also feature raised dots near the bottom, so baristas and anyone with impaired vision can feel the cup and identify the size they have.
The Starbucks Tall cups are shorter and wider to accommodate the same size lid as larger cups. The redesign uses the same lid for all sizes which allows less plastic lids to be manufactured.
The Future
The new cups are part of Starbucks’ sustainability push, and the company has a goal for all packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2030.
The debut of this reduced-plastic cup is a small step in the right direction.