On Feb. 11, 2025, a new compostable Starbucks cup policy was implemented in 14 states in various locations, including several in Marin. The policy aims to cut Starbucks’ carbon and water footprint by 2030. Starbucks is seemingly making a big difference with the change through the advertisement for an “eco-friendly” cup; however, the new Starbucks cups are not as eco-friendly as they seem. Compostability and small switches to slightly better products are not the solutions America needs for pollution.
According to the Starbucks website, the company has developed compostable cold cups and lids. The new cups are made from fiber-based paper boards with a bioplastic liner, making them opaque. However, according to a study from Science Direct, bioplastics contain toxic properties including cellulose and starch-based products. According to Sustainability Metrics: Life Cycle Assessment and Green Design in Polymers from the University of Pittsburgh, although the production of bioplastics produces fewer greenhouse gases, they produce higher levels of pollution resulting from fertilizers, pesticides and land use.
The fine print of the fiber-based Starbucks cup lid reads, “commercially compostable only. Facilities may not exist in your area.” Then, in larger print below, “Compostable.” A glance at the cup does not provide any clarity on how the cup should be disposed of. Starbucks needs to be more transparent on what commercially compostable truly means. It is a confusing term that implies eco-friendliness but leaves it to the consumer to take action. Companies distributing these materials need to be more forthcoming on how they are contributing to environmental action.
According to the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), while there are only 5,000 commercially compostable facilities in the United States, the majority only collect yard trimmings, leaving only a small percentage accepting compostable packaging. According to Clean Water Action, Starbucks and Our Plastic Pollution Problem, “Starbucks uses more than 8,000 paper cups a minute, up to more than four billion a year. 1.6 million trees are harvested annually for all of these single-use cups.” The reduction of trees in our atmosphere is hurtful. This process releases carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, meaning less is absorbed through the trunk. This further worsens the climate crisis.
So, where do those four million cups end up every year? Now that Starbucks has switched from plastic to paper, there isn’t enough room in commercially compostable facilities for them. Since they aren’t going to these locations, they are more likely to end up in landfills.
More waste in landfills is a direct result of compostable plastics contaminating batches of recycling, meaning they cannot be recycled. On the other hand, when bioplastics are thrown away in landfills, they are not composting correctly due to misplacement, resulting in the heavy production of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.
The average polyethylene-lined paper Starbucks cup takes 20-30 years to decompose and the average plastic cup takes around 450 years. So yes, this is technically a greener switch for Starbucks. However, the bioplastics lining the compostable cups reverse the idea of a cleaner future for Starbucks. New, “greener” cups aren’t solving the waste issue that Starbucks has posed to the environment. Bioplastic lining is a threat to the environment and needs to be further altered for Starbucks to truly achieve its goal of becoming “green.” Empty activism by large corporations is not a solution to our climate crisis.
