This new plan aims to remove single-use cups by 2025.

Starbucks is looking to the future! In a new plan announced on Tuesday, Starbucks hopes to remove single-use cups by 2025.

The coffee giant will accomplish this by testing three operating models at select stores, to "create a cultural movement towards reusables by giving customers easy access to a personal or Starbucks provided reusable cup for every visit making it convenient to reuse."

The three operating models are broken down below:

  • Borrow A Cup: 
    • Customers order their drink in a designated Starbucks reusable cup, designed to be returned to stores, professionally cleaned, and reused by other Starbucks customers. 
    • This was previously tested in Seattle last year. Starbucks has live pilots in Japan, Singapore, and London.
  • 100% Reusable Operating Models: 
    • In this program, single-use cups are eliminated entirely, in favor of reusables, personal cups, or for-here-ware. 
    • Starbucks tested this at four stores in Jeju, South Korea, and recently expanded this to an additional 12 stores in Seoul.
    • The test in Jeju diverted an estimated 200,000 disposable cups from landfills in the first three months. 
  • Personal Cups & For-Here-Ware:
    • Encouraging customers to bring their own cup and emphasizing Starbucks provided for-here-ware as the default sit-and-stay experience.
    • Starbucks is testing a 100% for-here-ware program at their experiential Greener Store in Shanghai.

By the end of next year, Starbucks customers in the U.S. and Canada will be able to use their own personal reusable cups.

Store manager Kim Davis led one of the first stores to test "Borrow a Cup" in the U.S. and said, "Customers were just so excited to try something new and my partners had a lot of pride in testing it and giving that feedback to make the program even better. I do think that everyone really does want to contribute to a better world, and if we can help them do that one cup at a time, that is our mission right there."

In addition to the new operating models, Starbucks has been exploring customer incentives in hopes of changing behaviors, including various promotions, financial incentives, and more.

"We set a bold aspiration to become a resource positive company – to store more carbon than we emit, to eliminate waste and to conserve and replenish more freshwater than we use," said Michael Kobori, Starbucks' chief sustainability officer. "Innovation is how we will build our next chapter, advance our planet positive impact, and boldly reimagine our future together."

Check out the full press release from Starbucks.

What do you think of Starbucks' plans to remove single-use cups and replace them with more "communal" options? Comment below.