NPR News

Starbucks plans to phase out paper cups in the U.S. and Canada

By Deepa Shivaram

Published March 16, 2022 at 5:29 PM EDT

Customers at Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada will be able to provide a reusable cup for their drink by the end of next year, the company announced Tuesday. [Matt Rourke / AP] — Customers at Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada will be able to provide a reusable cup for their drink by the end of next year, the company announced Tuesday.

Get those to-go mugs ready, again, because your next Starbuck coffee could come with a side of sustainability.

By the end of next year, Starbucks customers in the U.S. and Canada will be able to use a personal, reusable cup for their drinks, the company announced Tuesday. The change will apply to drinks ordered in the café, at the drive-thru and mobile orders.

"We have a bold long-term sustainability vision and ambitious goals for 2030," Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement. (Johnson is stepping down as CEO; former Starbucks leader Howard Schultz is returning as interim chief.)

"Starbucks partners around the world are passionate about protecting our planet and are at the very center of driving the innovation that enables us to give more than we take from the planet," Johnson said.

Starbucks announced a goal in 2020 to reduce waste by 50% by 2030. The company says that by 2025, it wants to create a "cultural movement" toward using reusables by giving customers "easy access to a personal or Starbucks provided reusable to-go cup for every visit."

Starbucks has announced several other green initiatives in the past decade.

In 2012, it unveiled an initiative to turn coffee grounds and unsold pastries into plastics and laundry detergent. It also committed to phasing out plastic straws.

And in 2015, Starbucks got top marks in an analysis of how fast food companies were creating more sustainable packaging.