Starbucks Stores in Manhattan Launch Cup Recycling Pilot Program

Seven Starbucks stores in Manhattan have launched a cup-recycling pilot program. The coffee store chain is conducting the program in conjunction with Global Green USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery (CORR).

According to a press release, “the pilot will test the collection and recycling of coffee cups when combined with old corrugated cardboard (OCC), which CORR says is the most extensively recycled material in the U.S.”

CORR says that 58 billion paper cups are used each year in the United States. If all these cups were recycled, 645,000 tons of waste would be diverted from landfills each year, which would produce a reduction in greenhouse gases equivalent to removing 450,000 passenger cars from the road.