Starbucks does not recycle plastic cups it claims are ‘widely recyclable’, report says

Key points

• If you attach a GPS tracker to a “widely recyclable” plastic Starbucks cup and drop it in an in-store recycling bin, you might expect it to end up in a recycling plant, but the environmental watchdog organization Beyond Plastics says that’s not the case in a new report.
• Starbucks announced that their plastic cups were now considered “widely recyclable” earlier this year, according to How2Recycle, a group affiliated with the consumer packaging industry that helps private companies label their packaging with recycling options.
• The coffee giant touted the achievement as a “big milestone, with huge impact”.
• In response, researchers and volunteers with Beyond Plastics, whose mission is to “end plastic pollution everywhere”, conducted an investigation between January and March 2026 to determine whether the plastic Starbucks to-go cups for cold drinks were actually being recycled.
• “I used Bluetooth-enabled trackers,” said study lead Susan Keefe.