How does buying a cup of coffee from Starbucks affect the environment - Dissertation Example

Literature review: How does buying a cup of coffee from Starbucks affect the environment? Coffee is a vital part of people’s everyday lives across the globe. They consider it an important social beverage and a nice way to start the day but many people are unaware of how this popular beverage effects the environment. For this reason, many companies have started creating types of coffee that benefits the environment instead of negatively affecting it. Even Starbucks, the leading coffee brand has now indulged in environment friendly coffee growing practices.

They employ practices that minimize the environmental foot print, tackle climatic change and inspire others to do the same . There are many studies that focus on measuring the sources of waste, taking various variables into consideration. The first aim of per capita municipal solid waste generation in the south-eastern U.S. study was to explain waste generation in south-eastern America by identifying the significant determinants of waste production and their impact on the environment. The independent variables chosen were economic, structural and demographic variables.

Per capita retail sales, per capita value added by manufacturing and per capita construction costs were included as economic variables whereas cost per ton to dispose of the waste at the land fill was examined as the structural variable. Urban population percentage and per capita income were included as demographic variables (Hockett and Pilgrim). The second aim of this study was to observe the specific nature of the contribution of retail sales to the generation of waste. The study generated how per capita of sales in stores including restaurants contribute to the overall production of waste.

The study concluded that as retail sales increased, the amount of per capita waste generation also increased (Hockett and Pilgrim). Starbucks has a lot of retail outlets so the amount of waste generation can be identified by the number of its retail sales. Recycling can benefit the environment by diverting solid waste from landfills which can produce airborne pollutants, compete for open space and pollute ground water. There are social costs and benefits involved in recycling (David Aadland).

Starbucks despite being the leading coffee giant contributes to excessive amount of waste by not using the re-usable cups. It is one of the major solid waste problems in municipalities to deal with. However, the giant of all coffee companies has set a goal to make 100% of their coffee cups re-usable by 2015. This seems like a lofty goal but they have defined it as attainable and are pretty confident about achieving it in the coming years (J.S. Yeomans) . Municipal waste management in the United Kingdom and the United States is governed by various environmental factors, financial and policy-based pressures.

All of these factors are causing the movement towards the alternative methods of dealing with waste. There is a shortage of landfill sites and the transfer of waste to other landfill sites especially to distant sites involves high transportation costs and requires the use of heavy transportation vehicles. Hence, it is a very expensive process (Gray). In the medium to long term, landfill sites play a reduced role in effective municipal waste management strategies. This is due to increasingly stringent environmental controls, new licensing arrangements and public unacceptability.

Many organizations now have developed waste management strategies in the following priority order: Minimize waste Reuse Recycle Recover energy Landfill According to the Environment, Policy and Municipal Waste Management in UK, the greater the amount of solid waste, the more municipal budget required. Since Starbucks generates enormous amounts of municipal wastes such as coffee cups, etc, significant municipal budget is required to properly dispose and recycle all this waste material. Around 16 billion paper coffee cups used in the United States every year add to the landfill garbage and consumed natural resources.

Therefore massive municipal budget is required by Starbucks (Gray). According to an analysis of structural and environmental policy data for the U.S., there are two types of states: “commercial” and “industrial” with respect to correlations with waste management efforts and pollution level. The commercial states have strong waste management programs and low pollution levels whereas the industrial states have high pollution levels despite the strong waste management programs (YOUNG). Starbucks operates mostly in commercial states but it is also prevalent in industrial states so the pollution level generated by waste is high on average.

Bibliography David Aadland, Arthur J. Caplan. "Curbside Recycling: Waste Resource or waste of Resources." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 25, No. 4 (2006): 855–874. Gray, J Murray. "Environment, policy and municipal waste in the UK." Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1997): 69-90. Hockett, Daniel and Douglas J. Lober* and Keith Pilgrim. "Determinants of Per Capita Municipal Solid Waste Generation in the South Eastern United States.

" Journal of Environmental Management (1995): 205–217. J.S. Yeomans, G.H. Huang and R. Yoogalingam. "Combining Simulation with Evolutionary Algorithms for Optimal Planning Under Uncertainty: An Application to Municipal Solid Waste Management Planning in the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth." Journal of Environmental Informatics (2003): 11-30. YOUNG, FRANK W. "ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN THE U.S. STATES." Social Indicators Research. Springer (2007): 205-224.