Starbucks Korea announced that starting Nov. 6, 12 of its Seoul stores will phase out single-use plastic cups and offer only mugs, glasses or reusable cups as part of Starbucks' ongoing efforts to reduce plastic waste.
A Starbucks customer returns a reusable cup at one of its plastic-free stores. (Starbucks Korea)
Reusable cups are priced at 1,000 KRW (5.4 RMB) and can be returned for a full refund (cash or credit) at the 12 stores mentioned above or at the 14 recycling machines located in Seoul.
Seoul is the second location, after Jeju Island in the south, where Starbucks has decided to abandon the use of single-use plastic cups. All Starbucks stores in Seoul will join the program sometime next year. The implementation of the program on Jeju Island and Seoul is expected to reduce the number of single-use plastic cups by about 500,000.
"We will continue to raise awareness about multipurpose cups and encourage customers to bring their own cups and eventually increase the number of plastic cups we reduce," said a Starbucks Korea official.
In April, Starbucks said it aims to eliminate disposable cups from all of its stores in South Korea by 2025.
In 2018, Starbucks stopped using plastic straws in its Korean stores and replaced them with paper straws. Read more, Starbucks launched the "crumb tube": made of coffee grounds, it degrades more than 90% in 4 months.
