Question by charlie: Can you recycle Starbucks paper products made from recycled materials?
Why aren’t there recycle bins at Starbucks for paper products like coffee cups and napkins? Their website says that it is up to the individual starbucks landlords to make decisions on recycling. I live in a community where recycling is abundant so I am shocked that it is not available in any of the shops. When asking the barista she said that the materials they use for coffee cups, sleeves, napkins, etc. are already recycled so they can’t be recycled again. I’ve never heard of this. Is it true you cannot recycle products made from recycled products?
Best answer:
Answer by Brandi C
You can recycle products made from recylced materials. You cannot, however, recycle products that are soaked with food or drinks. People would have to wash out their cups after they use them before they put them in recycling, and they would not be able to recycle things like dirty napkins at all. A better idea would be to bring your own reusable mug or thermose.
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You have discovered Starbucks dirty little secret. What is really funny is that Starbucks has won awards for using recycled products: http://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/news.asp?ID=8542 They buy recycled cups & napkins but do not offer a single bin to take them back for recycling. Paper can be recycled many times and at the end the sleeves(the most recycled paper-similar to egg cartons) can be composted and returned to the soil. Starbucks has never supported any kind of recycling effort in any of their stores. I want to know what happens to “an estimated 1.5 billion cups” that come out of Starbucks every year!
Many states have passed laws requiring recycling of it’s residents. This law only pertains to residents though and not to businesses.
It is always the choice of the business owner.
Corragated cardboard, Newspapers, Plastic & Glass bottles, Aluminum cans can all be recycled.
As far as those non corragated drinking cups I am not familiar with any recycling process that would be able to do that. as it would need to be put into large groups or bundles to be processed.
I would also suggest that in many places where aluminium is required to be recycled you may want to bring it into a private recycling station as they will actually pay you for the aluminum cans. I have seen clean aluminum go for in excess of 70 cents a pound. It may not sound like alot but I have also seen how fast it adds up.
The countie recycling plants are making large amounts of money through the required recycling of the resident aluminum. They actually bail it up and truck it up to Canada and still make a huge profit.