This is a good topic for discussion. I was at the Starbucks at MacArthur and NW Expressway in Oklahoma City this weekend and saw no recycling bins. Later, I was at the one in Penn Sq. Mall and I decided to get a reusable travel mug. I wasn't crazy about it but I don't like tossing out paper cups all the time. Where's that early 90's recycling spirit? We need Al Gore!

What gets me is they used to give a discount for using a ceramic cup or for bringing your own. No more.

Listen, I live right in the center of Starbucks country, Seattle Wa., and can anybody tell me why their coffee is so bad? Bitter, burnt-tasting, and the mochas just plain suck! I'm not too fussy about coffee, but Starbucks is just plain BAD.
Am I missing something? I have tried Starbuck's from Everett to Olympia. I won't go there anymore, a waste of my coffee dollar. What's the story?

Mooser - you are spoiled and don't know it. As a former puget soundian, I can say that Starbucks is the worst coffee in that area. period.

As to cups, I don't think people think about them. Those that do have to-go mugs they use, rather than paper. My observations, or $.02 anyhow

The 10-cent "bring your own cup" discount was alive and well as recently as June 05, when I stopped working for Starbucks. I'd be VERY surprised if it has been discontinued - I suspect a partner training issue is the true problem.

My Starbucks branch did not recycle; we had a tiny trash room that could barely fit all the garbage generated by one day of business. There literally was no place to sepearate out the recycleables. We felt bad about it, but short of renovating the entire store there wasn't anything we could do.

It is indeed bad coffee -- over roasted and tastes like it's burnt, but the free used coffee grounds are an excellent addition to the old compost pile. You can pitch your coffee cups in with the grass clippings, too.

In Seoul, Starbucks has set up return system for to-go cups. One returns the cup, presses a button and is rewarded with in the amount of about 5 cents.

I live in Seattle, an occasionally find myself in a Starbuck's. I don't hate their coffee, but I don't love it either. They do, however, always give me the $0.10 discount for using my own cup, plus the usually call it a tall instead of a grande for even more savings.

I am amazed that anyone goes to a Starbucks.

I don't support companies that have evil business practices. I bypass Exxon to buy gas at a Citgo (owned by Venezuala). I have to drive, I have little choice in not supporting evil there...

But I never shop at Starbucks. When they came into NYC, they went to the landowners and had small mom-n-pop coffee shops that had been there for 75 years turned out so they could take over the space. If the landlord wouldn't take their huge rent offerings, they'd make sure they got a place as close as they could so they could take all the business and drive the other people's life-savings into poverty.

I will drink day-old swill at a truck stop before I ever go to a Starbucks.

The 10 cent thing's still going strong -- At the Starbucks near me, this policy's written at the bottom of their menu board. But I'm guessing this isn't true across the country?

Sometimes the baristas may forget though, in which case you might remind them to give you back your dime and put it in the tip jar :)

Also -- Starbucks finally got the FDA to approve cups with 10% recycled content -- which doesn't seem like a big deal, except that it took them like 7 years to get the thing approved.

I also spoke to a Starbucks manager in San Francisco a couple days ago -- He said that his store used to have separate containers for recycling and stuff, but that the customers often fucked it up (throwing coffee into the paper recycling, etc) that the containers became pointless and discontinued.

So anyway -- as a coffee consumer, it seems that, as of now, the burden lies with us consumers -- to take our own cups to the coffee shops, or to drink the coffee there in ceramic mugs -- and encouraging friends to do the same :)

Ironic! I was thinking about trying to set up a recycling system at our local starbucks - thinking about how wasteful we have become with our convienently bought purchases. Society, overall, takes for granted the enviornmental costs to sustain a caffienated population. I would be interested to know the statistics ( how many trees are consumed to safely contain our brewed delights)

How up for asking there local starbucks to set a bin aside for simple recycling procedures. The earth will thank you most deeply.

Ask the manager a simple question- a suggestion that stems from an ongoing issue. It really doesn't ask much of the franchise, and would deeply please customers and enviornmentalists alike. What wondeful irony!

sO stArbucks says you alL RecYcle well you all BeTteR for the saKe of poLLution. PEACE!!!

Despite your great intentions, the current Starbucks disposable paper cup design IS NOT RECYCLABLE. This is because the insides are laminated with oil-based plastic. They are neither recyclable, compostable nor sustainable.

Check out www.treecycle.com or www.ecoproducts.com to find sustainably produced coffee cups, carriers, plastic to-go containers and more. The green coffee cups use a corn-based plastic substitute for the inner lining.

The lids on the other hand, are recyclable. Kudos to you and the other readers of your blog for caring to take the steps to reduce your use. Bringing your own cup is the best thing you can do to make sure your children have a viable planet to live on in the future.