Starbucks: Reduce Your Plastic! Sign Up to Host a Demonstration
We are organizing our network across the country to take action on Starbucks' deceptive recyclability claims by holding demonstrations at Starbucks the week of September 28, 2026.
Sign up using the form on the right to get the organizing guide to:
- Jump in right away with the petition and social media
- Engage your local Starbucks; and
- Organize a demonstration aimed at Starbucks CEO, Brian Niccol, the week of September 28
Beyond Plastics is ready to help you organize a demonstration every step of the way. Once you sign up, you'll get the full organizing guide and an invite to a weekly coaching call with our National Organizing Director, Alexis Goldsmith.
Please note that the goal of these demonstrations is to urge the company to make improvements - not burden or blame rank-and-file Starbucks workers.
It’s critical that companies like Starbucks be held accountable for deceptive recycling claims and take real measures to reduce plastic production. Starbucks uses nearly 8 million plastic cups a day, which it advertises as recyclable, when in reality these cups are mostly sent to landfills and incinerators. Starbucks should implement three REAL solutions that will significantly reduce its plastic pollution:
Commit to following Starbucks’ “A Better Cup for All” policy by supporting workers with the resources and staffing they need to serve ALL customers who order inside their company-owned stores in a reusable ceramic cup or glass, unless customers specifically request to-go cups. Good news: Starbucks says this is its actual written policy, but the reusable cups and glasses are often not offered.
Implement a nationwide switch from plastic to paper to-go cups and lids, just like Starbucks has already done in more than 550 stores across 14 states.
Immediately stop deceiving the public about plastics recycling at Starbucks stores by removing the recycling images of plastic cups from its in-store bins.
Beyond Plastics’ investigated Starbucks for making plastic cup recycling claims. Our report, released in May 2026, showed that even when a Starbucks customer did everything correctly — placed their used Starbucks plastic cup into a clearly marked, in-store recycling bin — 90% of the cups that were tracked, using electronic tracking devices, ended up at landfills, incinerators, and waste transfer stations. In fact, not a single one of the tracked cups went to an actual plastics polypropylene recycling facility. Read the full report here
