An estimated eight million tons of plastics are swept into oceans annually. Plastic beverage containers are among the most common items found in beach cleanups. In 2008, Starbucks pledged that, by 2015, it would serve 25 percent of beverages in reusable containers like ceramic mugs. Ten years later, the company had little to show for its efforts, with less than 2 percent of beverages served in reusable cups.

Global concerns increase daily regarding plastic trash, including single-use cups finding their way into waterways, where they can harm animals. Half of Starbucks’ beverage sales are now cold drinks served in plastic cups, and its hot paper cups use a plastic liner. In 2018, As You Sow urged the company to develop a revised plan to meet its failed reusable container goals.

In January 2020, following two years of strong shareholder proposal votes, Starbucks agreed to begin a broad shift from single-use packaging to reusable packaging, conduct unprecedented research to promote customer behavior change, develop new global reusable container goals, and cut global packaging waste 50 percent by 2030.

As You Sow and its dialogue partner Trillium Asset Management filed shareholder proposals in 2018 and 2019 asking Starbucks to renew the failed effort to serve 25 percent of beverages in reusables and to start recycling packaging in developing markets. The 2019 proposal was supported by 44 percent of shares voted, the highest vote result to date on plastic pollution. When the company did not adequately respond, the proposal was re-filed for 2020, which led to a productive dialogue and the January agreement.

Starbucks will pursue a parallel track of making existing single-use cups more recyclable and more frequently recycled in the short term, while pushing long-term efforts to shift completely to reusable or refillable containers. The company will continue its NextGen Cup Challenge, initiated in response to our 2018 proposal, which seeks to alter the composition of paper cups to make them more recyclable and compostable in many markets. The company agreed to undertake comprehensive market research and trials on consumer adoption of reusable containers over the next year and set a strengthened reusables goal, or range of goals, in 12 months based on research results.

The shareholder proposal also called out the lack of recycling bins at thousands of Starbucks locations in developing markets, such as China, where the company has more than 3,000 stores and opens a new one every 15 hours. The company’s promise to cut store waste in half by 2030 includes single-use cups and should lead to reuse, recycling, and composting programs in those markets. In recognition of these actions, As You Sow and Trillium withdrew their shareholder proposal.

This is a watershed moment with the world’s largest coffeehouse company agreeing to look at ways to fundamentally shift how its beverages are delivered. If the effort is successful, as many as six billion single-use cups may be eliminated annually, drastically cutting the company’s single-use waste.