Two girls petition for a fully recyclable cup at Starbucks
Two 11-year-old Calgary girls head to Seattle today in hopes of presenting a petition that calls on Starbucks to use fully recyclable cups.
Mya Chau and Eve Helman are passionate about the environment, which prompted them to start a petition asking Starbucks to make its cups 100-per-cent recyclable. They currently have 275,000 signatures on the petition, which was shared on social media by Margaret Atwood.
“We want to hopefully make them think and we want them to change,” said Mya.
“We want to attend the Starbucks shareholders meeting … and give them our petition. Hopefully they will vote yes to making a recyclable cup,” said Eve.
About two years ago, Mya heard her mom discussing how harmful disposable cups were to the environment. It prompted her to think about doing a survey on disposable cup usage.
The two girls surveyed 164 people, showing that on average each person was throwing away 155 disposable cups per year.
Starbucks representatives did not respond to Postmedia Calgary phone and email queries today, but its website notes that the company is actively committed to reducing waste and to increasing recycling.
The City of Calgary website notes, “Paper cups with a thin plastic lining … are acceptable (for recycling) … This includes the takeout coffee cups commonly found at coffee shops like Starbucks.”
However, the thin layer of plastic inside the cup means it can take the cup 20 years to decompose.
Mya and Eve joined an environmental coalition group to help convince Starbucks to create a better cup. They have added their petition signatures to 5 Gyres, Clean Water Action, Break Free From Plastic, and many other organizations.
Those organizations have pitched in to the send the girls to the shareholders’ meeting.
But, they realistically say that everyone who will be at the shareholder meeting will most likely vote “no,” due to the commitment, cost and effort a new cup would entail.
As Mya said, “Did you know that if nobody does anything about the plastic going into the ocean, then there will be more plastic than fish in 2050?”