The tall, grande, venti and trenta cups, which debut this month, will keep more than 13.5 million pounds of plastic from landfills each year.

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In the last four years, Kyle Walker has learned more about the Starbucks cold drink cup than he ever thought he needed to know. How much pressure can you apply to the top and the sides before it crumples? What’s the exact angle of a full cup right before it tips over when you slide it across the bar? What does a perfect lid-to-rim fit feel like?

And the most important question at the center of his team’s testing and research at a laboratory inside <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/inside-the-tryer-center-the-starbucks-lab-where-anything-is-possible/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Tryer Center</a>, Starbucks innovation hub in Seattle: How much plastic can you remove from a cup while making sure it still feels sturdy in a customer’s hand?&nbsp;&nbsp;

This April, Starbucks is proud to announce the debut of a lineup of more sustainable cold cups in stores across the U.S. and Canada. They're not only made with less plastic than previous cold cups, they are also projected to reduce emissions and conserve water in the production process, while streamlining the workflow for store partners (employees) by consolidating the lid combinations and simplifying storage.

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The new cups – the first single-use cups designed by Starbucks in the Tryer Center specifically to be more sustainable and accessible – are part of Starbucks commitment to cut its carbon, water and waste footprints in half by 2030. Also in that timeframe, Starbucks has committed to making sure all customer packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable.&nbsp;

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Based on analysis of life cycle assessments, producing the new cups is projected to save, annually, emissions equivalent to taking about 5,200 cars off the road, and conserve about 2,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. The new cups will keep more than 13.5 million pounds of plastic from landfills each year. And they cost less to make.

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*Impact projections are estimated

The new tall, grande, venti and trenta-sized cups use 10 to 20 percent less plastic compared to previous cold cups.&nbsp;Feedback from store partners and customers informed the key features. Baristas made drinks in test and store settings, rating the feel and performance of different iterations. Customers responded to surveys via QR codes. &nbsp;

&nbsp;“We invented new ways to test the cup that we didn’t have before,” Walker remembers. “Like, what if we take this feature and we move it up or down? Or what if we change the shape or the radius in this very small way? We were making all these micro adjustments and when we found the optimal combination, it was a real Eureka moment!”&nbsp;

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Accessibility features were folded in. Raised dots signify different sizes that can be felt by a swipe of the thumb, for those with low visibility. Letters are embossed on the bottom of the cup, so baristas can quickly confirm what size they’re grabbing during a busy rush when all the cups are stacked upside down. Black and white “fill lines,” indicating measurement specifications, allow for contrast against both light- and dark-colored drinks. &nbsp;

And crucial for partners: the tall, grande and venti cups all use the same size lid. To achieve this, the tall cup was redesigned with a wider mouth and profile, to still hold the same 12 ounces. Previously, the tall cup had multiple lid options, and the grande and venti cups shared a different lid.

The multiple lids had to be stored and stocked separately, which created clutter and took up valuable shelf space. Sleeves of the new cups will also be color-coded instead of coming in clear bags, helping with identification. The trenta size will use a different lid.&nbsp;

“We’re in the efficiency business,” says Kristi H., a 26-year partner and store manager in Washington state, whose team tested the cup as it was being developed. “Anytime we can streamline or shave seconds off our operations, it frees us up to have more human connections with our customers, and just have more fun at work. ...&nbsp;

“Anytime we can get behind anything with less of an environmental footprint is huge. It’s a small step to the bigger good.”

Side by side comparison of new cold cups, two bright pink beverages in tall and grande cups

The new Starbucks Cold Cup being used in-store.

This April, Starbucks is proud to announce the debut of a lineup of more sustainable cold cups at Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada.

New, more sustainable Starbucks cold cups are made with up to 20 percent less plastic - Starbucks Canada

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Starbucks Canada

New, more sustainable Starbucks cold cups are made with up to 20 percent less plastic

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Sitting without fanfare on the table in front of packaging engineer Andy Corlett is the clear, recyclable lid that will soon replace more than a billion plastic straws each year.

“It sounds dramatic, but this lid is going to get used about a billion times a year. It’s going to take billions of single-use plastic straws off the market,” said Corlett, director of global packaging solutions and innovations, whose team at Starbucks helped design the lid. “It still hasn’t necessarily hit me.”

Corlett, who designed packaging for companies including L'Oréal and Proctor &amp; Gamble before coming to Starbucks three years ago, said the solutions he’s worked on in the past more typically might reach 10 million customers, a number that seems large. But this is on another level. It’s surreal to work on a project that will reach billions and will “change a way of doing things that’s been around for 100 years.”

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“We’re seeing a lot more public awareness around sustainability in packaging,” he said. “We have a major opportunity here. The impact and reach of this project make it really special. Plus, we think customers are going to love it.”

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In July 2018 Starbucks announced it would phase out plastic straws from more than 30,000 stores worldwide by 2020. The new lightweight, strawless cold drink lid will begin rolling out to stores in Canada and the United States this summer, an important milestone for eliminating plastic straws.

The new lid was modelled strongly after the lid traditionally used on Starbucks hot drinks, Corlett said. But while the standard hot and new cold beverage lids are similar enough to be siblings, if not fraternal twins, there will not be one lid to rule them all. Corlett said maximum enjoyment of a wide variety of beverages calls for variations in design. The Nitro lid, for instance, has a wider mouth to allow for optimal sips of liquid and foam simultaneously. Blended drinks, like the Frappuccino, have recyclable, domed plastic lids and will still feature straws (except in cities where straws have been prohibited)), but by 2020 those straws will be made of a plastic alternative.

The new cold drink lid uses nine per cent less plastic than the former lid and straw combined and can still accommodate a straw, which will be available upon request, for those who need to use one, Corlett said. Starbucks is currently testing alternative materials to replace plastic straws as part of its goals to eliminate plastic straws by 2020 and to double the recyclability, compostability and reusability of its cups and packaging by 2022.

“We’re bringing new technologies to our company that we’ve never thought of before,” Corlett said. “It’s very exciting times as we look forward to our journey of being the most sustainable company we possibly can.”

At the recent Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Michelle Burns, senior vice president of global coffee &amp; tea, shared news of the new strawless cold drink lid as well as other updates on progress the company has made toward sustainability.

Over the next year, in several worldwide markets, Starbucks will pilot new cups that will be both recyclable and compostable in those cities. 

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Starbucks initiated a collaboration called the <a href="https://www.nextgenconsortium.com/">NextGen Consortium</a> last spring with partners such as McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, Yum! Brands, Wendy’s and the World Wildlife Fund to not only explore next-generation recycling and composting technologies, but to work with municipalities to increase acceptance of these green &nbsp;cups.

Customers in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and London will help test several cups from the 12 <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/closed-loop-partners-announces-12-winners-of-the-nextgen-cup-challenge/">NextGen Cup Challenge winners</a> announced earlier this month.

“Who knows what further innovation we will see – I’m excited to see what happens next,” Corlett said. “Starbucks, either through our own initiatives or through collaborations, is making a significant change in the industry and how it thinks. That’s very special to me.”

At the annual shareholders meeting, the audience will sip Pike Place® Roast from a prototype of one of these cups.

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To put a lid on the company’s dedication to sustainability, Burns will also preview an upcoming feature in the Starbucks mobile app that will eventually let consumers trace the journey of the coffee inside their cups from bean to brewing. (In the case of the batch of Pike Place being served at the meeting, 80 per cent of the beans came from farmers in Colombia and 20 percent from farmers in Brazil.) This ability to digitally trace the journey of coffee is another crucial piece of the company’s effort to be transparent in its sustainability and ethical sourcing, Burns said. 

Say hello to the lid that will replace a billion straws a year - Starbucks Canada

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Say hello to the lid that will replace a billion straws a year

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The new lightweight, strawless cold drink lid will begin rolling out to stores in the United States and Canada this summer, an important milestone for eliminating plastic straws.