Starbucks not alone when it comes to waste and pollution

not a clue. it's an ages old question. we do what we can but can't make everyone do too

Our whole setup needs to change- All these throw away cups are horrendous for the environment yet it's hard to think of an alternative other than having them spray the coffee/tea/cold drinks straight into our mouths--ha! It's worrisome though.

I agree with you. Actually McDonald's and other fast food restaurants also create a lot of rubbish. They use too much disposable tableware.

We have become such an "on-the-go" society. Most people are not concerned and will not be concerned until the Earth is totally trashed. I don't buy coffee's out but I am guilty of fast food such as McDonalds and Subway.

Back in time people used things that were "washable". I still dislike anything plastic, so I never buy fast food and if I stop in a place to drink a coffee, it's a bar where the coffee is served in a ceramic cup. Governments do not care at all to stop the pollution and waste. It would be enough to ban the use of plastic for food to reduce a lot the pollution. We even get vinegar in plastic now, that is even very (VERY) unhealthy.

The ONLY solution is personal awareness of one's personal contribution. I DO think companies can make certain decisions to curb what THEY contribute to the problem. But ultimately it is up to the consumer to decide. We still pretty much have freedom to consume what we want, and how we want. And we have the ability to write to the companies to tell them what we would like to see. If we leave it all up to someone else, all we will achieve is waiting. If enough people express a desire to make a change, companies will listen because they want the business. Everything about business is catering to the consumer's demands. If they do not cater to the customer, they won't sell their products. So, believe me...they will listen.

Just think of all the Fast Food places and all the other Coffee places, especially around here in the Seattle area. Waste is a hard thing to deal with. Maybe places need to make more things recyclable and try to encourage more people to consider doing this?

As we know, this coffee shop also sells tumbler or drinking places that you can carry every time you buy a drink there.

If I had a business of food, I would make the packages made of glass, charge for them, and give a refund to customers who bring back the package clean and complet. It would reduce garbage, and maybe other businesses would do the same. The plastic is really a problem and we get used to use it more and more.

The USA is the great Powerful Nation of Waste and we will never quit wasting.

Changing things around fir the sake of pollution is a long way to go.

It seems no more safe place for the next generation children to play.Different sicknesses surface due to pollution.

there will always be wastes, that's just life.

It;s good you thought of this for the environment; I agree, people can do a bit to ease the problem about garbage; about plastics floating in the oceans and killing marine life.

I hate Starbucks over priced coffee and we are brainwashed this is how you create jobs. I get we all have to do something to survive and probably what Starbucks was. But at some point it all becomes obnoxious and to me even though Starbucks has a very socially conscious founder. It does not exactly fix the problem and just enhances it which seems to be what most of our solutions for everything does.

No not me but I think if we just use one thing less every day, the overall effect will be massive.

I read that a wrapping material is being made out of paper and oil, I believe, that will deteriorate, and not last forever as plastic does.Maybe we will see the end of plastic.