Starbucks' Shift To Reusables Includes Allowing Personal Cups For Mobile Orders

If you’re a Starbucks regular, you should probably start stocking up on reusable cups, because they’re about to play a huge role in your coffee runs. With Starbucks’ new push toward reusable cups, customers will soon be able to use their trusty personal reusable cups for their Starbucks orders in stores, drive-thrus, and yes, even mobile orders. Though the change won’t be fully implemented for a couple years, the move and customers’ willingness to adapt to the changes has the potential to help Starbucks reach its goal of reducing 50% of its waste by 2030.

Starbucks has long offered customers 10 cents off their order when they bring a reusable cup from home to hold a coffee or drink they order in store. The company paused the use of reusable cups in its stores from March 2020 to June 2021, before bringing back an updated its reusable cup policy on June 22, 2021. Now, the company is taking its devotion to multi-use cups even further. According to a March 15 press release, customers will soon be able to use their own personal reusable cups with three different ordering methods (including mobile order and pay) at all Starbucks locations in the United States and Canada by “the end of next year” in hopes that the change will create a “cultural movement towards reusables” by 2025.

“Our big vision for the future is stores that only use reusable cups, which is a model being tested already – including at Starbucks HQ (“Starbucks Support Center”) in Seattle,” a Starbucks representative tells Elite Daily.

The company hopes to continue to test and learn in order to make that a reality, and customers can support it by starting to adjust their coffee runs. Here’s a look at the ways you can implement using a personal cup, which BTW, will score you 10 cents off your drink.

Reusable Cups for Mobile Orders

As of March 15, 2022, there’s no word on what the process for placing mobile orders with a reusable cup will look like in the app, but you can look forward to the ability coming by the end of 2023. While the use of personal cups means you can use your favorite tumbler or thermos, Starbucks also announced the company would also provide “easy access” to reusable to-go cups for every visit, so you can help save the world one reusable cup at a time even when you forget your go-to sipper.

Reusable Cups for Drive-Thrus

Starbucks hasn’t yet released any information on how personal reusable cups in drive-thrus will work, but you can probably expect to hand over an empty reusable cup at the window and get it back with your fave Starbucks drink inside.

In-Store: Borrow-A-Cup & For-Here Ware

In addition to continuing to allow customers to use personal cups with orders in-store (and introducing new washing stations for customers to sanitize their personal reusables) Starbucks also announced it will continue to test the Borrow A Cup program — which the company began testing in spring 2021 — in the United States, the U.K., Japan, and Singapore.

Borrow A Cup allows customers to order their drinks to-go in a reusable Muuse cup and return it at a later date. Each of the cups are professionally cleaned and sanitized after every order, and they can be used up to 30 times to help reduce landfill waste.

Starbucks will also be put an even greater emphasis on for-here ware by testing out 100% reusable operating models in its stores. In fact, the company has already seen so much success with this model that it was able to eliminate single-use cups at 12 restaurants in Seoul and four restaurants in Jeju, South Korea. The latter helped keep over 200,000 cups out of landfills in the first three months, per Starbucks, so reusable cups work, y’all.

With the reusable push, the company will also test various incentives to encourage customers to bring their own cup, like a 10-cent single-use fee or 50-cent discount, and unique partnerships and promotions.

ICYDK, Starbucks set a goal in January 2022 goal of reducing 50% of its carbon emissions, water withdrawal, and waste by 2030, and the move toward reusable cups is the latest step in that process. In the two years since the pledge, Starbucks has worked towards its goal by expanding its plant based menu and sourcing 100% renewable energy for its stores — and now it’s all about reusables.

Before making your next Starbucks run with your fave reusable cup, remember to check CDC guidelines for the most updated health rules.