Starbucks gives you one more reason to drink too many caramel lattes - reusable cups

As someone who has greatly increased my Starbucks consumption as of late, I was thrilled to hear the news that this week, they introduced $1 reusable cups to help cut down all that paper waste.

 

Starbucks is definitely on a roll with it's good-global-citizens business practices, and their environmental goals only add to that. Sadly though, they recently modified these goals which were originally to see 25% of all their beverages served in reusable cups by 2015. Now that number is 5%--it would seem that most customers are just not ready to commit.

Still, for those of us frequent visitors who can keep a cup at our desk, or in our car, it would be nice to give it a shot. (No pun intended.) And paying just a buck for that grande sized cup may help. Especially considering you get a $.10 discount every time you use it (as with all reusable cups), so the cup pays for itself pretty quickly.

Cooler yet: Bring it in and the baristas will personally clean it out for you first with boiling water, taking away that (very big) excuse.

I know behavior changes like this can be hard--for me especially. But heck, I think of all the people I've seen shelling out upwards of $10 for some crappy "collectors cup" at a circus, ballpark, or Broadway show and I think, maybe there's hope.  -Liz

Can you make the leap to refillable cups for your mocha soy latte? Or does it seem like too much of a hassle? We'd love to know.

Find More: Big Brands Doing Cool Things, Food and Drink