Starbucks 'wasting 23 million litres of water a day'

reply to post by Extralien


I personally think Starbucks is a bunch of hype anyway, they are just selling hot and cold coffee for Christ's sake! And getting a hell of a price for it, it is ridiculous! They should be limited to theme parks and such, what they do is rip people off.

And those coffeeshops purchase that water from the municipalities where they are located...

And they do not pollute that water, they just let it run back into the system where is will be recycled/purified and reused - except it is exceptionally clean water that is injected into the water supply and thus reduces the burden on the municipalities where the those coffeeshops are located, in terms of water purification etc....

It appears that water companies are making money both coming and going, as Starbucks is a big waster and therefore an Excellent customer

Edit: I've never had Starbucks. I'm not one of those "types" - you know who you are...

[edit on 7-10-2008 by TruthTellist]

A lot of companies waste a whole lot more water than that. I guess it's news because it's Starbucks, and because they were supposedly spearheading a "green" move. Guess not so much eh?

But surprising to me they don't find an alternative fix for this, rather than just waste it. I do not buy Starbucks, ever. Not in years. I am not going to pay 3 or 4 or even 5 bucks for a single cup of joe, that's ridiculous. Like I am gonna pay MORE to have my coffee made all foo-foo....

this is disgusting , USA is a terrible nation, its wastes water, pollutes world with co2 and causes global warming ,

time to impose water tax,carbon tax etc .. on USA, so that people of USA who are responsible , pay for the damage they inflict on the world , to UN or Greenpeace

Originally posted by fleabit
I am not going to pay 3 or 4 or even 5 bucks for a single cup of joe, that's ridiculous. Like I am gonna pay MORE to have my coffee made all foo-foo....

This is way off topic, but why not just get a cup of coffee when you go to Starbucks? It costs about $2, which is not out of line for what Dunkin Donuts charges, and the coffee is much better. DD's coffee is so bitter I have to add tons of sugar; Starbucks' coffee I drink black, no sugar. Which also means no artificial sweeteners, and no 80 or 100 empty calories in white sugar.

They don't force you to get the frou frou stuff you know. Just say "I'd like a large coffee" like you would anywhere else. But you'll get to add your own cream and sweetener instead of having to take it however the person behind the counter does.

Just a thought

Originally posted by Extralien

These are the people to blame..this is why our water is not fit to drink and costing us so much in bills.

I'm gonna go drink more starbucks. Everyone is out to get starbucks. You're all trying to find someone else to blame, when it's really yourself that you should be blaming.

Originally posted by Extralien

Starbucks 'wasting 23 million litres of water a day'

uk.news.yahoo.com

Starbucks has today been accused of wasting more than 23 million litres of water every day.

The coffee chain, which prides itself on being green, has a health and safety policy of leaving taps running in all of its 10,000 branches worldwide it has been revealed today.

Starbucks bosses claim that the flow of water stops germs from festering in the taps.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Another reason not to drink at the over-priced coffee factory.

Yo, Starbucks has to rinse all of the pitchers both hot and cold. They have the spoons for Lattes in a pool of continuous water for filtration and health standards.

Just wanted to add - I think Starbucks has been great for coffee connoisseurs because they help create and spread the great taste of European coffee around the world. Now we have many choices and they even forced fast food outlets to make better coffee in order to compete for business. Bottom line they help raised the standard.

I buy the bags of Starbucks Coffee beans in the Grocery stores & I've noticed most of their coffee is roasted too dark. My favorite is their Breakfast Blend which is a perfect mild blend.

reply to post by themamayada


Hmm... When I was a kid, we were going through another drought in my area. I used to take ice-cubes out of the freezer, set them on the hot cement porch, and just watch as they got slippery in the sun. Water flowed between the little crevices in the concrete, making it darker wherever the cold pool spread... Mmm. Making me thirsty to remember. I used to imagine the water vapor floating up to form storm clouds right above my head. I did this every day for almost a whole summer. It didn't rain.

I used to think I could remember being a rain drop in a past life too... Hmm. That, and the idea that I could be drinking old dinosaur pee really excited my eight-year-old self!

The water cycle is a beautiful thing. It really is. Like C.H.U.D. has said already, however, it is something that takes time. A chart at the bottom of this page shows you how long a water molecule remains in different types of bodies of water.

We can waste all the water we want. It won't rain down on our heads again tomorrow, though, and there's really no saying where that rain will fall when it does. Better take care of what you've got.

Talking about running with misinformation just to be able to attack Starbucks.

Starbucks first off is not wasting water. Keeping utensils clean is a very important thing for any food service operation. Most any high volume food service operation will have the same setup somehwere on there premises. Why? Because the local health authorities require it and because it keeps their customers from getting sick. I think the part about disease building up in the tap is just someones uniformed opinion.

Secondly, I don't drink coffee. I always had this idea that their coffee was $5 a cup until I went to buy some for some friends one day. I was pleasently surprised when 5 coffees cost me less than 10 bucks. I was expecting over 20 bucks. I wanted something to eat also, but Starbucks had nothing i wanted.

Does anyone know how much water it takes to wash a human body every day, not to mention all that yuky soap? Does anyone know how much water is wasted by hospitals & doctor office’s washing their hands so often? What about how much water is wasted by flushing toilets? If we all just lived in our own filth, we could save millions of gallons. Better yet, how much water does Holland waste by pumping it out to sea every day? Sure, we can always depend on France by saving water by not taking showers, but they can only do so much.

Let’s run Starbuck’s out of business. I hate these places with all their locations… and fancy employees. Things were much better before Starbucks were around. It must be their fault.

BTW- As FlyersFan said, I also prefer Wawa or DD, but we are smarter in Delaware. LOL!

I just wanted to give an update on this situation. Starbucks just took out the running water and put in a different faucet that only runs for about 5 seconds at a time. Doing that saves each store about 150 gallons of water per day. It passes health code and is more "green."

reply to post by CoffeeGeek


Sounds like an awesome compromise.

I personally love Starbucks. They try to get products from really awesome areas while trying to help them out.

And it's delicious and addictive.

This really isn't any worse that bottled water or soda, Most of us don't need to consume nearly half as much liquid as we do.But put something addictive in the water and BAM your makin money..

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
As a Sbux empoyee I just wanted to clarify a few things.

This tap is tiny and the water pressure is incredibly low. In our store when we have no customers in we turn ours off.

It is left on to rinse off spoons we use to scoop milk foam into our lattes and cappucinos. The water runs over the spoon to stop milk building up on the spoon so you don't get the remains of old milk scooped into your drink.

I don't necessarily agree with thr policy, but I just wanted to clear up any misconceptions people seem to have

I actually believe that this is required by most health departments. If you ever go into an ice cream parlor and they are not running water where they clean the ice cream scoops, then run away as fast as you can because you will bet sick. Most everyone here is so ready to attack that they don't think straight. you should be happy that restraunts do this, or they would use much more water to clean utensils.

Where is the Starbucks that turns it off when no one is in the store? I want to stay away from that one. you are putting your customers in danger.

Originally posted by sligtlyskeptical

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
As a Sbux empoyee I just wanted to clarify a few things.

This tap is tiny and the water pressure is incredibly low. In our store when we have no customers in we turn ours off.

It is left on to rinse off spoons we use to scoop milk foam into our lattes and cappucinos. The water runs over the spoon to stop milk building up on the spoon so you don't get the remains of old milk scooped into your drink.

I don't necessarily agree with thr policy, but I just wanted to clear up any misconceptions people seem to have

I actually believe that this is required by most health departments. If you ever go into an ice cream parlor and they are not running water where they clean the ice cream scoops, then run away as fast as you can because you will bet sick. Most everyone here is so ready to attack that they don't think straight. you should be happy that restraunts do this, or they would use much more water to clean utensils.

Where is the Starbucks that turns it off when no one is in the store? I want to stay away from that one. you are putting your customers in danger.

Well with the new way starbucks is cleaning the spoons, you are supposed to rinse the spoons after every drink and every 2 hours switch out the spoons for new ones and put those through the dishwasher. I am also a sbux employee and we make sure to always make sure the spoons are sanitary. I can't really vouche for any other locations or anything but we can only hope that all of the locations are doing it right,