Reusability on-the-go: Starbucks incentivizes personal cup use for drive-thru and mobile orders in US and Canada

05 Jan 2024 --- Starbucks has announced that consumers across all company-operated and participating licensed stores in the US and Canada can now opt to use clean personal cups when ordering in a café, at the drive-thru or through the Starbucks app, reportedly becoming the first national coffee retailer to allow customers to use their own cups for mobile orders.

This initiative, effective immediately, is poised to contribute to Starbucks’ commitment to reduce waste by 50% by 2030 and is part of the coffee retailer’s larger cultural movement to shift toward reusables and away from single-use plastics.

Customers at participating stores in the US and Canada who bring their own clean personal cups will receive a US$0.10 discount on their beverage, and Starbucks Rewards members in the US will earn 25 “Bonus Stars.” 

Building on a successful personal cup test at 200 drive-thru stores across Colorado last spring, Starbucks store partners actively contributed to designing a custom reusable cup smallware, which all stores will use to transfer orders to personal cups.

“Ordering with a personal cup in a café has been an option for customers since the 1980’s. To bring the option to drive-thru and mobile order, Starbucks worked together with our partners (employees) to develop a process that best fits into their existing production sequence with baristas guiding how we should do this in the best way possible for them,” a Starbucks spokesperson tells Packaging Insights.

After a successful test in Colorado, Starbucks retained the option for customers to bring reusable cups to drive-thru.“When we tested personal cups in drive-thru at 200 stores in Colorado last spring, overall drive-thru times were not negatively impacted. The Colorado test was so successful that since June after the testing period ended, we have kept the option for customers to bring their personal cup in the drive-thru at those stores.”

Discounts, rewards and hygiene measures
To ensure safety and hygiene, Starbucks requests customers to bring clean personal cups, preferably close in size to the ordered beverage, and no larger than 40 ounces (~1.18 L). Due to safety protocols, Starbucks cannot rinse or wash personal cups — unwashed cups will result in the beverage being served in Starbucks’ for-here or single-use cups.

In a Starbucks café, customers can inform the barista about their personal cup, and those choosing to sit in can request a reusable ceramic or glass cup at most stores.

Customers can order their beverages at the drive-thru as usual and inform the barista about their personal cups. At the pickup window, baristas collect the personal cup without the lid using a contactless vessel, ensuring hygiene and safety.

For mobile orders via the Starbucks app, customers can customize their order by selecting “Personal Cup” in the menu. Upon arrival, customers connect with the barista at the pickup area, handing over their clean personal cups without the lids.

“In the US, 1% of beverages were sold in a personal cup last year. We’re excited to offer our customers way more ways to order with their personal cup and join us in our efforts to reduce waste sent to landfill,” says the spokesperson.

Behavioral change
Starbucks credits its test-and-learn approach, informed by partners and employees in Starbucks Tryer Innovation Lab and pilot locations across the US, for implementing personal cup ordering across all channels.Customers can select “Personal Cup” in the customization menu for orders via the Starbucks app.

“Our big thing to solve with personal cups is to help drive long-term customer behavior change. Over the past two years, we’ve conducted more than 20 reusables programs and tests in markets worldwide, including the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, London, France and Germany, to learn from these operating models in parallel,” details the spokesperson.

“We know from our behavioral science-based approach and global test learnings that a simple discount alone, no matter how generous, will not engage all customers. There must be consistently multiple motivators, functional and emotional, to drive routine adoption.”

Reusable push
Starbucks also launched a £1 million (~US$1.22 million) “Bring It Back Fund” with Hubbub to increase the uptake of reusable packaging in the F&B industry in May 2022. 

The coffee retailer envisions a future where every beverage can be served in a reusable cup. 

“Offering our customers the option to bring their personal cup for every visit is a big opportunity for us to not only be an industry leader in the reusables space while making progress toward our waste target of cutting our waste footprint in half by 2030 but also to drive a new customer behavior as we invite our customers to join us in our reusables efforts,” the spokesperson explains.

“While a shift to reusables is a primary strategy toward achieving waste reduction targets, finding better ways to manage waste with more sustainable packaging solutions is also a priority that can also deliver short-term impact.”

“One recent example of how we are working to make our packaging more sustainable in parallel with our reusables efforts is the development of lightweight, Forest Stewardship Council-certified, single-use hot cup in the US with more than double the recycled content, made with 30% post-consumer recycled fiber, 9% less paper and 25% less plastic liner,” elucidates the spokesperson.

By Radhika Sikaria