I'm sitting here brain storming ideas on what we can do as a team at our store
get involved more with recycling, we already recycle the card board. But I'm curious
as to what other stores are doing to recycle besides recycling the cardboard
I am currently experiencing the same situation, and I am determined to find a way! In fact, my motivation came from a customer today; she was the cutest little girl and she came up to the bar and asked if we had a recycling for her empty plastic h2o bottle. It was a small thing, but her concern and effort gave me hope and inspiration! We can do this!
The way I feel is Starbucks still has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the basic paper/plastic recycling, and I hope we can come up with a permanent solution sooner rather than later -
However, we still have Grounds for Garden, and I think stores should try to re-launch (or something) in their area to get the program rolling again. In San Francisco, composting is mandatory, and I really hope it starts to spread! but if one or two stores got a compost bin and started to collect that, we could send it to the local schools for their science projects and stuff.
And my last idea, instead of just putting the newspapers in the recycle bin at night, we could save them and donate them to places like schools, after school programs (i.e. Boys and Girls Club, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts ect.) local theater houses, anything really that could recycle it! I just remember in school always doing art projects like paper machete, or English class, when we would have to pick articles from newspapers and do a report on them.
Sorry this is so long! I haven't tried this yet at my store, but I plan to try an introduce the ideas very soon. I hope this helped, Good luck!
At one of my stores I set up a plan to have a specific trash bin behind the line just for empty milk jugs. We then got a second rolling trash bin where we would put those bags only. Every couple of days as it filled up, I or another partner would load the bags of milk jugs into our trunks and drive them to a nearby recycling dumpster.
Unfortunately this became hard to sustain because we couldn't get everyone to collect the bags, and they would start to pile up. Here in Columbus Ohio we don't yet have excellent recycling practices as a city. But if you have a group of partners that are determined enough, something like this can work!
This is one of the "pain in the ___" projects but think of how much we save on our backs taking out trash, how many bullets get repurposed (even if temporary), and how many people benefit from the great addittion to their compost! Please keep pushing your partners to start this as soon as spring hits (like now) and continue until snow falls. For those of you fortunate to be in warmer climates, I hope that you keep this up all year round!
~marcia
We keep bagging the grounds In our store all year round (we have four seasons
)! If you have it available someone will take it. People take it mostly for their compost in fall and winter and for fertilizing and other stuff (ants hate it!) in spring, summer and fall. Have it where everyone can see it and it will be gone.
Happy recycling and happy (soon) spring!
Anna
We are lucky to have one the the best recycling facilities in the country. Our trash goes to a facility that takes out anything that can be recycled. It goes on a conveyor belt first, is hand picked then trh conveyor takes it by/under a huge maganet and so on. I have toured several times and it's remarkable each time. (okay, stinky too! lol)
However, the only thing they do not recycle at the facility are bottles. We have "huts" around town for depositing them.
We save papers for some gardeners that use them as weed barriers in theri garden (I am one of those gardeners).
Our store also recycles the empty chargers at a local metal exchange and hold the money for the year for either Christmas donation to a family (Slavation Army provides a name) or we contribute the money to out Relay For Life Team.
The biggest complaint we have at the moment are the gift cards. The only 2 places in the country that recycle them are located in Ohio. I am in Ohio but have yet to get a collection to take them there. Anyone can send them. Check out earthworksystems.com
Happy recylcing and PLEASE use your own cup/glass/bottle for partner drinks!!!!
~marcia
Wow thats awesome! Te empty chargers is a definite thing to consider
Doing at my store, thanks for the reply :)
@Justin
Yea the milk jug thing kinda involves the whole time, so it can become a
Hassle if only a few of them are up to do it!
Every time I am at work and here the clink of a charger go into a trash can by mistake I think of the thousands that are ending up in landfills just from Starbucks! Save them for just one week and then do the math. Unfortunately the magnets at our facility do not get these due to their size but they are 100% recyclable!!!
Refuse, Reuse, Reassign, Recycle, Real Healthy World!!!
~marcia
We really should start pushing the recycling of chargers! The question is
where can we start saving them? For example: a designated trash can, or
what are ways you guys are making sure they aren't getting thrown away?
We keep them in a cheap (dollar sore type) shoe size plastic container. When it's full, we put it in a leftover coffee box (they're sturdy) and a volunteer has to either take them home or to the local metal recycling center. I have been known to keep several boxes in my garage until we get a substantial amount to take. (see the photo on my profile) At one time, we had our whole district collecting (9 stores) then bringing them to a district meeting for my manager to bring to me. That was enough to go straight to the metal exchange! lol Unfortuntely, I had a car crash (lady hit me coming out of her driveway) and I was out for 5 months so the program kinda lapsed. Starting again from scratch but still just as motivated!
Sorry to hear that! But from your profile picture or past one I would say,
You can get it back to speed (:
Marcia
We are in and please send Pamela Brown the information about this she is our district lead and will support you in getting this started. Please request her as a friend if you dont already have her. Lisa at Brunswick want to organize Medina Earth day again this year, we need to get it on this website... so if you could help her with that it would be great..
Marie
Marcia,
This is awesome! My store is in (and at some point I will get the whole district to do this)! It has always bothered me and my partners when we had to put the empty chargers in the trash. Thanks for the idea! We will start collecting these and recycle them as well!
Anything else you are hiding from us
, Marcia?
Take care,
Anna
Not at the moment, but just give me time and I am sure I will come up with more ideas about getting Starbucks as green as we can get-after all, we do wear green aprons, right! lol Maybe the Marketing Department can use that! ![]()
~marcia
Hi, I don't know how to link to another discussion thread so check out the "YAY We are Recycling" thread. In it, I posted a response that applies (I've updated it with the new process - all inquiries should go through Facilities):
All - its fantastic to hear how all of you are trying to ensure recycling in your stores. My name is Sue and I work on the Global Responsibility team on environmental issues like recycling. Some partners mentioned this in the thread, but one great resource for you is our waste services consultant, Rock Tenn. Their job is to set up recycling (and composting if its locally available!) for the store if Starbucks manages the trash - including all the dumpsters and containers you would need. To contact Rock Tenn, call the Facilities Call Center and they will forward the message on. If your landlord manages your trash services, you can ALSO talk to the Facilities Call Center and they can work with the landlord. Note also that if the FCC can't get the landlord to give you recycling, Rock Tenn can sometimes get recycling service for landlord-managed stores, too.
We have committed to having recycling in all our stores by 2015 so you should be seeing some progress in various markets as we roll this program. We've alread got recycling (including front of house cans) in all stores in Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle, and more are coming soon!
Facility Call Center 877-SBUX-FIX or 877-728-9349.
Thanks so much for the information! :) I'll deffinatly take this and put
It into action!
Thanks for this information. It looks like we have a fcility close to our location. It would be rgeat to get our plaza maangement to work with this company! However, our county facility is so good about recylcing (they are still ranked about #6 in the US) that I would hate to take away some of their supply. What are your thoughts?
Hi Susan, this is a very valuable information! Thanks for that!
Hi everyone. I wanted to add on to the conversation. My name is Stacey and I’m on the team that is responsible for waste removal for our North American stores. I love how everyone is looking for ways to beef up recycling. Just want to ensure we’re all on the same page about a couple of things.
Front of House Recycling for Customers: We know many stores are anxious to provide this service and we need you to wait. There is a Front of House Recycling Program team working hard to bring customer recycling to all of our stores by 2015. A strategic roadmap and launch calendar have been developed and we really need stores to refrain from setting up their own program and to wait until their scheduled launch time. There is a lot of research and alignment that occurs before a bin is ever placed at a store because what is accepted for recycling varies from store to store, area to area, and from home to businesses (stores). Additionally, we only order enough bins for our official launches and if unscheduled stores order them, it puts us a risk for not having enough bins. Uniformity is also important. Having the same bin type, the same graphic style, the same look and feel will go a long way in eliminating customer confusion. We really appreciate you honoring this as it will allow us to develop the most uniform program possible across all our stores. Your patience will be rewarded with an amazing program!
Behind The Counter/Back Of House Recycling We encourage partners to maximize their behind the counter recycling as much as possible since this where most of our waste is generated. And most of it can indeed be recycled, assuming local services are available. We ask that you do not call a recycling vendor directly (and never ever sign anything!) or our waste consultant, but rather call the one place you're used to calling anyway...the Facility Contact Center (FCC) at 877-SBUX-FIX.
At the end of FY11 79% of our stores were recycling at least one item back of house, mainly cardboard. With conversatons like this, hopefully at the end of FY12 we can say mainly cardboard, plastic milk jugs and syrup bottles! Thanks for all your efforts! Stacey
In my store we recycle:
- milk and sauce jugs
- syrup bottles, any plastic bottles
- alluminum cans
- our cold cups and lids (clean)
- hot cups (clean
- cardboard and mixed paper
- gift cards
- plastic bags
- empty coffee bags
- empty chargers
Some of them we take personaly to the proper place, grocery store, scrap metal yard or home to recycle.
That is why I am very excited about the Front of the House recycling for the customers! In Montgomery County, MD we tried this about three years ago, we had a trash can with three holes (glass, plastic and newspapers) and three compartments inside (one for each hole). We also had many customers asking about the recycling, but this trashcan was a nightmare for someone like me (i.e. one who really recycles). Most of the time it all ended in the garbage because I would have to have one person separating the trash and cleaning it from everything else what people threw in it (those non-green people who don't care!). One or two haf empty cups with frappuccino would do it. If you did not pout the bags in it, you had to clean the inside compratment each time when you changed the trash bag. Wel, basically everything ended in the trash anyway and we gave up. I was very unhappy about it I was just nor staffed to have one extra person in the back cleaning the trash can. We put the signs on the can, we covered it with the lid (so only those who really care would go throught the trouble to put something in there) - nothing worked.
I just hope that the new trash cans will be better, more visible and it will be more clear that it is for recycling onlyh!. I also hope that Starbucks will make a nice sign that will make people think before they throw regular trash in it.
Other than that, I am excited and ready to do my share!
Let's see how it will go, good luck to all of us,
Anna ![]()
It's me again! ![]()
So I just got my second new trash can for front of the house recycling. They are still both in my back hallway and I am afraid that I will not be able to use them the way they are. It says that we can recycle paper cups, hot and cold lids, paper (including napkins), plastic cups, cans, bottles, plastic containers from sanwiches... Everything else goes in the "trash/landfill" side.
I know that this is not case for my store. If I collect everything listed in the "recyclling" side, it becomes contaminated and it can't be recycled in my shopping center. If customers put their cold cup with the lid AND a straw, it is contaminated (straw must be pulled out! - different type of plastic). Paper can't go with the plastic at all! Same for the BOH: no cartons from soy milk or chai or heavy cream! No empty chargers!..... How complicated!
I had a meeting with a person form our local government and he confirmed that before we start using the trash can we must contact our landlords and the company that collects our trash/recycling to make sure that we can mix all the product that are listed on the top magnet of the trash can.
Let's make sure that we do things right! I'd rather continue doing what I am doing making sure that our things get recycled properly. Hopefully the technology of our Waste Management company gets more up-to-date at some point and we will be better prepared for mixing all recycled product together.
All the best to all of us,
Anna![]()
Michael, Check out Earthworkssystems.com they are one of the only places in the country that recycles gift cards. I have been collecting them in my store and shipping them there. Unfortunately you have to pay the shipping but if you get a USPS flat-rate box it's pretty cheap.
Awesome thanks! :)
I am actually planning to talk to my store manager today about finding a smart way to recycle Aluminum cans. I see so many in the trash and it annoys me that we aren't being more resonsible about it. I am also hoping we will be able to donate the money back from the cans into a different charity each month. May not be a lot, but it's one step closer to cleaner!
John,
I believe we also need to talk about glass recycling. So many times the customers have asked me if we recycle our San Pellegrino, Izze, and Ice Tea bottles after they are finished because they do not want to throw them in the trash. Let's get on that! ![]()
This is a great idea! I'd want to do something like this at my store, it's
Just that this would probably only work with stores that sell large amount of
RTD items.
Don't you guys have commingled trash dumpster? We can combine the glass, plastic and alluminium all together in one dumpster. Each time I see a can in the trash, I pull it out and recycle. It makes it so much easier. My partners also know what to do with their can if they have a soda etc.
Anna ![]()