Starbucks now allowing use of personal cups for mobile orders, drive-thrus

Starbucks customers in the U.S. and Canada can now order more sustainably, if they choose.

Effective Jan. 3, 2024, the coffee company is allowing customers to bring their own personal cups for mobile orders and drive-thrus in both countries, a spokesperson confirmed with Global News Thursday.

The move is part of the company’s ongoing effort to reduce cup waste in landfills and shift towards reusables.

“With the majority of Starbucks beverages enjoyed on-the-go, this milestone unlocks a big opportunity for customers to choose reusables and supports Starbucks commitment to reduce waste by 50 percent by 2030,” Starbucks said in a news release Wednesday.

Starbucks claims to be the first national coffee retailer in Canada to offer customers the option to use their own cups in mobile orders for all drinks and sizes.

The company, along with major competitors Tim Hortons and McDonald’s, stopped allowing reusable cups due to health concerns when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in March of 2020.

Starbucks took a step in returning to pre-pandemic life in August 2021, again serving customers in their personal mugs. The move did not include drive-thrus and mobile orders until now.

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Customers who bring clean, reusable cups at Starbucks receive a $0.10 discount. Baristas will not rinse personal cups in Starbucks equipment sinks for both staff and customers’ safety, the company says. For this reason, Starbucks will not accept dirty cups.

To order through the Starbucks app, customers should hit the “Customization” button and then select “Personal Cup.” They can then continue ordering as normal. When picking up from the café, customers hand over their personal cup without the lid, and baristas will hand the beverage back in a “contactless vessel,” the coffeehouse says.

Tim Hortons has also lifted its policy against serving personal cups, allowing customers to bring their own mugs in cafes and drive-thrus. McDonald’s also accepts reusable mugs nationwide, but at the front counter only.

In October, A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. said it will be launching an exchangeable and reusable cup program across the country in a bid to reduce waste. The new A&W One Cup program will allow customers to pay $3 for an exchangeable cup when they order a beverage.

Starbucks chief sustainability officer Michael Kobori said in the recent news release that the company knows its customers are passionate about the planet.

“At Starbucks, we envision a future where every beverage can be served in a reusable cup,” he said. “Offering customers more options to use a personal cup when they visit Starbucks marks tangible progress towards the future.”

While Starbucks says the new initiative comes from a desire to reach sustainability goals, one environmental activist says she has doubts.

“I’ve seen (Starbucks) make a lot of announcements about reusable cups and they haven’t come true. So I don’t think that they’re doing this out of the goodness of their hearts,” said Emily Alfred, who is the waste campaigner for the Toronto Environmental Alliance.

“They’re doing it because regulations are forcing them to do it. They’re just getting ahead of the game,” she said.

Ottawa is cracking down on plastics and single use items in phases. But there are a patchwork of similar policies already in place or underway across Canada.

A number of regions across Canada plan to implement policies on single-use plastics and foodware within the year. For example, Toronto City Council voted in December to move to the next phase of the Single-Use Reduction Strategy which will include a range of programs and bylaws to reduce unnecessary single-use plastics and foodware beginning in March.

Edmonton has a Single-use Item Reduction Bylaw already in effect. Banff, Alberta also has a similar bylaw slated to roll out in phases throughout the year.

Other provinces such as Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have also already had plastic bag bans in place for the last few years.

Alfred says Starbucks’ recent announcement is “long overdue,” but still a positive step forward toward reducing waste across the country.

“It’s good that they’re making this shift. I think it shows that demand from the public and the regulations to require businesses to reduce waste are working,” she said.

Alfred says it’s estimated that billions of single-use cups are used by Canadians every year. She says the large quantities of cups, napkins, cutlery, condiment packaging and more produced for major international fast food chains in particular “is a real problem.”

“Some of these are used for just a few minutes or even a few seconds, then when we’re done with it, most of it isn’t recyclable,” she said.

“It’s just not sustainable.”