These Starbucks Stores Are Charging You Extra For Paper Cups — But Don’t Worry Just Yet

Even though Starbucks delivers some excellent coffee products on a daily basis, they also deliver a lot of environmental waste. Thankfully, the company is addressing the matter. You might have heard that locations in America are aiming to go strawless by 2020, but some locations overseas may soon go cupless.

British Starbucks locations are trying hard to convince their clientele that reusable cups are the way to go. And in order to reinforce this, they’re planning on charging just a little extra for paper cups. That extra fee is a great inspiration for customers to pick up a reusable tumbler or travel mug, thus helping save the environment.

According to Carry Your Cup, an initiative set to help inspire recycling and reusing, Americans toss 25 billion styrofoam coffee cups throughout the year and 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. That’s right — hour.

Their site also notes that back in 2000, Starbucks did a study that found out that each paper cup they manufacture is the equivalent of 0.24 pounds of CO2 emissions. Just imagine how much of an impact they can make by cutting back.

The cup charge first rolled out back in February, per Cosmopolitan UK, when they tested out the change in 35 London locations. The big move will start up on July 26th, when drinks in paper cups will increase by 5p. Customers who bring their own cup will be rewarded with a 25p discount, which can be massive for big Starbucks fans.

But that’s not all. Customers who pay the fee will technically be donating it to an environmentally friendly charity called Hubbub, who’ll be using the money to help launch additional campaigns.

So, even if coffee customers forget to bring their reusable cup, they can still pitch in and help the earth.

While nobody in the U.S. needs to worry about this extra charge quite yet, the concept is not a bad idea. Maybe American stores should take note — even giving the initiative a trial run will make a huge improvement.

Get a cute travel mug you love — that way, you’ll feel more of an incentive to use it. Our fave right now is this $11 mug from Ban.do.

You can buy it here. You’re welcome.