Vancouverites will see recyclable and compostable cups at Starbucks later this year.
Vancouver stores will test a greener disposable cup that was among the winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge, a global innovation competition to redesign the paper to-go cup.
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Canadian NextGen judge and recycling expert Allen Langdon said having Vancouver be part of the pilot makes a lot of sense.
“In B.C., we already recycle our cups across the province,” he told Global BC. “But that’s really unique across North America. The idea is to find a cup that can be used in waste systems around the world.”
New York, San Francisco, Seattle and London will join Vancouver in testing out some of the new cups.
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The challenge, launched by a consortium of major corporations like Starbucks, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, was only the first stage of creating a global environmentally sustainable cup.
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“You’re at the stage where no one company is going to be able to solve some of these issues,” Langdon said. “It really takes an industry-wide solution.”
Still in its early days, the consortium has a long way to go before determining what the final cup will look like, he added.
Starbucks announced plans last July to phase out plastic straws in all of its stores worldwide by 2020.
While some Vancouver locations already have recyclable strawless lids, Starbucks plans to roll out a new, lightweight version of the lid across North America in the next year, starting in Toronto this summer.
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