How Starbucks Can Do to Reduce the Plastic Cups Pollution

How Starbucks can do to reduce the plastic cups pollution

Kuang-Cheng(Johnny) Lo

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

Executive Summary

   It came without a doubt that most people needed a cup of Starbucks coffee to start a beautiful day. However, seldom did they use their own cups or buy reusable cups and in turn caused a severe pollution problem. Tons of cups were littered at landfills and most of them could not be recycled. Starbucks is working hard to reduce the pollution in recent years to fulfill the expectation for its customers and the public. From the perspective of customers, they hope the company can create a positive image on the society so that they will keep supporting the beverage of Starbucks. If Starbucks keep producing a gigantic footprint on Earth, it would suffer pressure from both customers and the media. Starbucks is the leading company in US and it should deliver a positive image toward the society and meet the environmental responsibility. There are several suggestions for Starbucks to alleviate the pollution on Earth and have a lighter environmental footprint.

   First of all, Starbucks should set up a well-rounded training system for its workers. The company should deliver the idea of promoting the use of reusable cups or the use of mugs in store instead of plastic cups.

    Second, Starbucks can provide customers who bring their own cups with further discount in order to facilitate customers to use their own cups more. It would be a win-win situation for both the company and customers. Customers can enjoy further discount in their drinks and Starbucks can alleviate the pollution produced by plastic cups.

   Third, Starbucks can change the way how it delivers the idea to customers. A small change in the slogan could trigger a big impact. What is more, Starbucks can hire a third party to supervise its goals of reducing the pollution. If there are no others overseeing the progress, it would be inefficient in carrying on the plan. A third party can give the society an image that the company is serious about the environment issue.

   Last but not the least, the CEO of Starbucks can openly deliver the message not only in their website but also in the media conference that Starbucks is trying hard to lower the footprint. I will provide further detail in this white paper to strengthen my point of view and how Starbucks can do to lower the environmental footprint.

Background

        Starbucks is the leading company in the field of coffee retailing and it enjoys a great reputation toward its high quality coffee. However, Starbucks should deal with the environmental problem and figure out some approaches to cope with the pollution problem. Pollutions produced by plastic cups is a sever problem for Starbucks. There are plenty of cups either in the street or in the park. The problem is that they can not be recycled and would in turn lead to a sever environmental problem (Adam ,2014). Recently, Starbucks developed paper cups hoping to reduce the footprint. However, those cups were prone to leave beverage and stint so that they could not be recycled unless they were clean enough. In terms of plastic cups, they would still exist in thousands of years and those non-recyclable cups would intensify the footprint on earth. All decision Starbucks made would be closely watched by all and the medias. Regardless of how careful they behave, one misstep, small and otherwise, would lead to merciless criticism. As a consequently, it is urgent for Starbucks to come up with some ideas to reduce the usage of plastic cups and to prevent our environment from deteriorating. The purpose of this white paper is to present recommendations to Starbucks in order to tackle pollution problems.

Research

        In order to justify my point of view, statistic evidence is a must. According to a YouGov Omnibous survey, 28% of Americans state that they had already purchased or planned to purchase the reusable cups. There were 19% of customers claimed they will probably buy one; 7% claimed that they will definitely buy one; and 2% claimed that they had already purchased the reusable cups. What is more, 70% of people said they believe it is a good idea and 40% consider it a very good idea (Karlene ,2013). As a result, from the statistic above, we can conclude that the policy of using reusable cups would be a benefit for Starbucks.

Pros and Cons of using plastic cups

        Although the disadvantages of using plastic cups is obvious, there are others who support the use of plastic cups for its convenience. According to the Society of the Plastics Industry(SPI), the plastic cups are light and inexpensive. As a result, company can lower the cost and in turn they can generate more profits. Moreover, plastic cups provide perfect storage solutions both in the office and at home (Stephanie, 2008). That is to say, plastic cups are extremely convenient for people nowadays.

        Nevertheless, the negative effect outdoes the positives. We have to take the environmental effect in account of the usage of plastic cups. To illustrate, plastic cups can not be recycled and would exist for thousands of years. Furthermore, chemicals contained in plastic would jeopardize our environment and are harmful to our personal health. Even worse, when the plastic cups are used to store hot beverages, they would trigger toxic chemicals which cause damage to our body. To conclude, it is apparent that the company should replace plastic cups with reusable cups in order to protect our nature and our body.

Solutions

   I will provide several ways that Starbucks can do to deal with the pollution problem in the following analysis. To begin with, workers seldom promote reusable cups to customers. It is, without a doubt, that Starbucks does not successfully promote the idea to lower the footprint and does not motivate their employees to promote such reusable cups to customers (Conrad, 2015). For instance, they conducted a survey randomly to the stores in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles areas to see if employees promote the reusable cups. The result is not surprising that there are no stores that highlight the reusable cups. If the company can not deliver the message of focusing on the importance of using reusable cups, then workers are not expected to promote such cups to customers. Hence, Starbucks should set up a complete training system to educate their workers for better understanding the benefits of reusable cups.

   Secondly, Starbucks should encourage their customers to bring their own cups to fill the coffee and give them discounts. They now provide a 10 cents discounts when using reusable cups. (Jessica,2013) There are other suggestions. To illustrate, the company can have a promotion that customers who use their own cups ten times would have a free cup of coffee. By this way, customers would be more willing to use their own cups since they can save money and save the planet. Moreover, Starbucks can reduce the usage of plastic cups, which can generate a positive impact both on the environment and the perspective of the public.