Monday, October 6, 2008

The Environments losing battle with Starbucks


Have you ever bought a cup of coffee from Starbucks? I bet most of you have, or do very often. But did you know that Starbucks wastes 6 million gallons of water a day. A study was taken place after a couple noticed that while waiting for their cup of coffee, water from a sink had been continually running.

That much water could fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes! The study was taken place at several Starbucks locations all over U.K, New York, LA, Beijing and Sydney. Part of the company's standards in preventing germ build-up is to keep water running into a sink, which is also known as a dipper well. The dipper well cleans utensils and washes away excess food. This has led to 10,000 Starbucks all over the world to waste an insane amount of clean water.

Jacob Tompkins of Waterwise, a nonprofit organization that focuses on decreasing U.K. water consumption, has said that it is not necessary for the company to keep the water running all day long. Utensils will still get clean if is turned off at different times during the day. He used an example of you not leaving the water running all day at home. This article mentions how ironic it is that Starbucks, a company that prides itself on environmental friendly options, seems to be ignoring a huge issue. They say they have brought other options to the table such as dishwashers, but none of them have worked as well for their company.

I think it is very irresponsible of Starbucks to be wasting that much water. For a company that says they strive to produce and buy economic friendly things, they are really failing on this one. Is it really necessary to keep your water running all day long? There must be other ways around this and a company of their magnitude must find that way!

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