Coffee cups: Starbucks and Tim Hortons recycling ends up in garbage (CBC Marketplace)

okay let's check it out here something we're scoping out the streets and back alleys behind two of Canada's most loved coffee chains Starbucks and Tim Hortons digging for clues where do all these cups really end up we throw out about a billion and a half of them every year look at its full cups enough waste to fill over 2,000 garbage trucks few countries drink more coffee than we do or take as many to go at this popular Toronto spot for a coffee break these folks worry about all that waste what do you think about that when you look at a coffee cup it's such a little thing but people don't look at the bigger picture like makes me feel kind of guilty for drinking this cheap cup of coffee so what are companies doing about that good question check out these videos serving up company concern ciara cups piling up in garbage cans you see our cups on the streets a green image is important so Starbucks has rolled out its very own cup recycling program customers can toss their cups and bins like these in about half their stores are closed keep waste out of landfill our diversion programs cover a range of materials including bottles cans paper packaging and organic material Tim Horton says it's doing its part to recycling bins like this now in almost a quarter of their stores I get a latte please coffee is about far more than the taste for Conrad McCarran he works with the big and viral group as you sow putting pressure on companies to reduce the waste they create hi guys I see you grabbed a coffee not a paper cup absolutely not he commends Starbucks and Tim's commitment to recycling cups in their stores their customers said it's important to us all this waste all these cups is very important to us and so to their credit decided to make it a priority and how unusual is that for a big corporation to take those steps it's very unusual certainly in the coffee business I think it's unprecedented and so I think Starbucks and Tim Hortons were both leading this to be commended but are these recycling programs all they're cracked up to be to find out we send our marketplace team on a mission so we've got these marketplace tough we're gonna put them into the recycling and see where they end up and to help us find them later we've got these sensors all right let's rig em up they get them ready and set off okay here we go so I've got my cameras on you recorded in mom recording time to test Tim Hortons and Starbucks stores across Toronto hi just at all miles coffee hi recycle great at Starbucks we're directed to those familiar blue bins we have one over there at Tim Hortons to our cups tossed in recycling we grab some coffees to go cuz it's about to be a long night putting two coffee chain's under surveillance our crack team waits for closing time and wait and wait finally here comes Starbucks staff taking out the garbage past midnight we make our move will we find our cup in the garbage or recycling behind this Starbucks we checked bag after bag none of it looks sorted into the garbage the garbage how could it be everything except a cache we're dark up go at the next Starbucks we're determined to leave no bag unturned oh my god is doing it this is to us as law goodnight you're involved you do it's a dirty job but we keep searching for answers really finally our first cup then another Starbucks says they pay a private company to recycle so why are these cups in the trash at Tim Hortons our cups are in the garbage - oh there it is all in with a stash of other items that could easily be recycled all told we find 14 of our test cups in the garbage and we ask so are these recycling garbage soda garbage recycle kill me leave okay this is all garbage the answer is clear bags and bags of coffee cups you recycle all on their way to landfill hmm just doesn't make sense so I take my own drive to Canada fibers North America's largest recycling plant so all of this has come in in one day in fact it was probably put here in less than an hour exact mark badger gives me a tour they recycle everything here from paper and plastic to metal and glass as for coffee cups but what is the bottom line on these cups may be recycled absolutely they can be recycled however in most places they're not why is that there is extra cost in processing most types of hot drink coffee cups tea cups because they're a combination of paper and plastic if companies brought you bags of coffee cups could you recycle them the answer is yes but if the economics are right turned out paper cups have a plastic lining you can't see that's why it costs more to recycle them they also have to be separated out not what we saw Wow what a waste that's all totally avoidable we show our nighttime surveillance to environmentalist Conrad McCarran the cups we put in recycling ended up in the garbage enormous waste of materials this would appear to be total green wash of that policy so much for Starbucks and Tim's promise to recycle all those cups so what are the coffee Giants have to say well we share our findings and ask for an interview for weeks no luck I'd like a large saute place so since Starbucks and Tim Hortons don't have time for an interview and a cup of coffee we're bringing one to them puzzle Erica Johnson from marketplace I'm wondering if I could talk to Ross Ann Williams hi there hi I understand you're looking for awesome yeah you've got head office president Ross Ann Williams isn't in but they say they'll look for someone else is there someone that can talk to us today I'm going to give this to someone who will get in touch but it's been over a month and we haven't heard from anyone agreeing to an interview we're told to wait outside but as the coffee cools so does Starbucks desire to talk wine no interview can Canadians trust Starbucks 3-dimension that gets response finally an hour later roughly right rear here on private property a reading asked to leave the property correct just comply them I think Canadians are gonna be disappointed that not one person at Starbucks headquarters will talk to us how many lattes do they sell us in Starbucks does get in touch by email they say they're now reviewing how their stores recycle as for Tim Hortons we stopped by head office with a double-double hoping to talk to president David Klein ahem actually I have no one care for available for comment this Canadian put a lot of trust into I'm sorry we're duty calls on the court she did not make one phone call to anyone in any of the departments here to see if somebody here could talk to us yep Canada's most loved coffee chain it isn't feeling the love for us so this is the end of the line this is where material that can't be recycled ends up going the cost of recycling cups means they aren't part of most cities blue box programs including Toronto's all that is garbage destined for landfill look at that you can see coffee cups here there's one there's one so until coffee companies make good on their promises cups tossed in their stores recycling bins have one destination and then they go

Channel: CBC News

Views: 330,742

Rating: 4.8466897 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, Starbucks (Business Operation), Tim Hortons (Business Operation), Coffee (Beverage Type), coffee shops, Coffee Cup (Product Category), coffee cups, Recycling (Industry), environment, Waste Management (Literature Subject)

Id: Y39-IZEuNDA

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/Age_of_Asylum]

To be fair, most of any recycling ends up landfills, not just them.

[u/PR280]

nice one Starbucks and Tim hortons

[u/[deleted]]

Recycling is an industrial process

[u/cham3lion]

Usually they send to other country like malaysia or indonesia...

[u/grenadetradedotcom]

Separating for recycling in businesses like this is bullshit. Things cannot be recycled if they have trace of food stuff on it. Companies and cities claim that they do but it's nothing but a big lie. We must drastically reduce usage and make containers highly biodegradable. That's really the only way.