Pick reusable coffee cup to reduce environmental footprint: Starbucks
The coffee megachain Starbucks is encouraging their customers to take part in reducing plastic waste by incentivising them with a 10-baht discount each time they use personal cups at their stores nationwide.
The company’s managing director, Nednapa Srisamai, expects the campaign to boost the growth of personal cup usage to over 3 million pieces in stores by the end of this year compared to 2 million pieces last year.
Thailand generated around 2 million tons of plastic waste annually, but only 0.5 million tons had been reused. The remaining 1.5 million tons had been disposed of and most of them were single-use plastics, such as bags, cups, straws and foam containers, according to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning.
Plastic waste impacts the environment directly as some of it could be harmful to marine species like turtles, dolphins and whales. Meanwhile, seafood could be contaminated with microplastic generated from plastic waste, resulting in impact on human health.
Due to the long decomposition period, plastic waste also triggers floods and marine debris, as well as an expense burden for waste management.
So far, Thailand implemented a roadmap in dealing with plastic waste, aiming to reduce plastic consumption, seek eco-friendly materials and reuse plastic waste by 2030.
“Starbucks is dedicated to ‘Living our Promises’ to partners, customers, communities, coffee farmers, and the planet with every cup of coffee,” Nednapa said.
Those who forget to take their personal cup can contribute to sustainability efforts by enjoying drinks at stores, in which staff will offer reusable cups for them.
Starbucks also aims to cut its carbon emissions, water usage, and waste by half within 2030, according to Nednapa.
The managing director asserted that since 1998 when the brand launched in Thailand, customers have contributed to the reduction of over 29 million pieces of single-use waste by opting for personal cups.
Additional steps for sustainability
The company has also launched the programme which allows customers to collect used coffee grounds for home gardening purposes. Over 4,000 kilograms of coffee grounds were distributed nationwide last year, Netnapa explained.
Further, Netnapa said the company has implemented a standard to ensure stores’ capability in energy consumption and eco-friendly operational efficiency.
The standard covers environmental impact areas: water stewardship, energy efficiency, waste diversion, renewable energy, responsible materials, engagement, sites, communities, health and wellbeing.
Each store in Thailand features an energy management system which collects real-time energy consumption data to ensure high operational efficiency and energy conservation.
“Of 6,091 stores that achieved greener stores certification worldwide, 12 stores are located in Thailand,” said the managing director, adding that up to 20 stores in Thailand would be certified this year.
Netnapa added that the company would seek procedures to evaluate the efficiency of greener stores in Thailand, as well as following up a change in regulations to cope with environmental-related risks in the future.
