Tata Starbucks, a 50/50 joint venture between Tata beverages and Starbucks operating in India, has announced that it will completely shift to compostable and recyclable packaging solutions across its stores in India by World Environment Day, 5 June 2019.

25Feb - StarBucks

Image: Tata Starbucks has been working to eliminate the use of single-use plastic across its stores. Photo: Courtesy of Tata Global Beverages.

Tata Starbucks has opened its first store in India in 2012 and since then it has been working to eliminate the use of single-use plastic across its stores.

The company claims that since 30 years, it has been focusing on sustainability across all aspects of its business, including achieving 99% sustainable coffee and committing to eliminate single-use straws globally by 2020.

The company intends to further advance its sustainability commitment in India through serving its sustainable coffee in sustainable ways across the market.

Tata Starbucks CEO Navin Gurnaney said: “Sustainable coffee, served sustainably is a significant milestone for Tata Starbucks. Sustainability is embedded in the fabric of Tata Starbucks’ mission which is driven by the aspiration to have a completely ecological platform – from working with farmers, to our supply chain and delivering the end product across all our stores.

“We are proud to be the first in the industry to be adopting all recyclable and compostable packaging solutions across our stores in India to further innovate the Starbucks Experience for our customers.”

The beverage company’s commitment to the environment is evident with its use of paper bags, paper sleeves and paper napkins made from recycled fiber.

Tata Starbucks has introduced numerous green initiatives comprising glass serve ware for food and beverages consumed within the stores, compostable wooden cutlery & stirrers, compostable paper cups & straws, compostable CPLA & PLA lids made from corn starch and compostable splash sticks for take away orders.

The company targets transition to compostable and recyclable packaging solutions at all its stores by the World Environment Day, in June 2019.

The company said that paper cups used at the Starbucks stores are in adherence with FSC Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and has partnered with a Central Pollution Control Board approved recycler under the Extended Producer Responsibility (E.P.R) Plan to help recycle waste.

Starbucks encourages its employees and customers to take part in sustainability efforts with social impact initiatives and customer-facing initiatives like ‘Grounds for your Garden’ which allows customers to pick up a free bag of used coffee grounds from select Starbucks stores for home gardens, which enables effective waste management.

Apart from that, the company encourages its customers to reduce waste with initiatives like ‘Bring Your Own Tumbler’ which gives customers an incentive of  INR10 off and the ‘No Paper Bill’ where customers can opt out of receiving paper receipts.