Starbucks - The drain robbery

genius people

they still have to pay for the water. it still goes down the drain, so it still gets back in the tap eventually.

I thought the the water cycle was primary science really, though i suppose this is the Sun......

well ... Its partly that in the US the health code requires that items like stirers to be in a water bath or not reused till being rewashed

water????? we are talking about water here??

is this water, they are wasting, in a desert?
are they taking water from populations who need it??

i mean seriously....
...get mad if they're dumping poisons into our drinking supply
..get mad if there is a gobal water shortage.........

......but right now drinking water is the least of our immediate enviromental problems..........

The point here (for all of you who think this is very insignificant) is that water is a valuable resource. There is NO need to treat and retreat clean water than goes down the drain. There is also no need to use excessive amounts of water. Although it may seem like water is not running out or you can do what you want with it because you pay for it, this just isn't the case. Aquifers across the United States are being pumped significantly faster than their recharge rates. Droughts across the country still severely alter the people's ability to use water as they are accustomed to doing.

Simply put, the purpose is this: water is so crucial and important to our well being, survival, and food supply that wasting water on any scale is downright despicable. The encouragement of policies that waste water is not only despicable but also very ignorant of simple changes that could be made to not only save a significant amount of water from being treated but also to save an overused collective resource.

"Take Only What You NEED"

As far as a global water shortage...do i need to do the research for you. Google it. You'll find out that the US is VERY well off with water supplies. The world is not in the same state of affairs. Just because the US is doing well does NOT MEAN THAT WE CAN TAKE ALL THAT WE WANT. Filtration plants where i live are being pressed to the limit right now, as they are likely the same all across the country. When you let the water run, you waste water.

As far as the Health code dictating that theses spoons or whatever be in a water bath or washed...common sense will tell you that WASHING THEM ONCE and reusing them SAVES A LOT MORE RESOURCES versus keeping them in a bath of constantly running/draining water.

I just installed a rain barrel on my house to try to divert some water from the treatment/sewer lines and put it on my grass and garden. EVERYONE should conserve resources, even if they are dirt cheap.

6.2 million gpd adjusted for the U.S. viewers.

What is most surprising about this is that it is worldwide. The United States has a great water supply but worldwide, the water at all these 10,000 stores cannot afford to be wasted.

Starbucks coffee sucks anyway. Dunkin Donuts is #1 once again.

would you rather have the spoons resting in dirty water? ice cream shops do the same with their scooper water.

Water, who needs to worry about water when we have Electrolytes!

fine them all bastards

ok, as a former starbucks partner and an advocate for environmental conservation, i'll make a few points:

1. not only is this sink required by health codes to be running, but if it weren't, you'd have a drink stirred with the same dirty spoon that stirred the prior drink. that's not sanitary or acceptable.

2. washing the spoon between every use and turning off the water is not feasible, since starbucks generally makes about one beverage per minute (or more) in an average store, and you would ultimately use more water, and create more polluted wastewater from using soap.

3. starbucks has continually invested in water conservation issues. particularly, they've replaced these spoon sinks with low-flow, high-pressure nozzles to use less water while still rinsing the spoon clean.

can't you come up with better gripes about the number 1 coffee chain in the world? do you have a realistic suggestion to solve this alleged 'waste' of water? disposable stirrers clog landfills, and soap pollutes the wastewater.

time spent constructively addressing this issue would be a thousand times more beneficial to all of us than the time wasted creating this rant.

I wonder if other cafes are any better though, or if Starbucks are really particularly bad. Anyway, that's not to mention the amount of food that chain cafes have to throw away, uneaten, due to ridiculous sell-by dates and rules about how you can dispose of items once classified as 'not fit for consumption' (i.e. past the date on the label).

(clap) (clap) (clap) come on lets give them a round of apluase, yet another reason to hate 9 dollar coffee!

I've noticed that and asked before. The baristas say that it's company policy to maintain sanitation, since they can't let things like milk sit in the sink until they get washed by hand.

I'm pretty sure that it's health department regulations.....

Do you realize that this practice is required by the health code?

Also do you know that it isn't only starbucks ... but every other coffee stand and resuraunt that has a simlar device ... so I suppose you should complain about all of them as well

you clearly haven't been ServSafe trained, nor worked in a similar establishment.

health codes require this sink to be running at all times, or the spoon be washed with soap and water. plain and simple.

attack the US Department of Health and Human Services for this requirement if you don't like it.

until then, i'll drink my stirred, untainted beverage.

They have these sinks at every ice cream shop for the scoopers, and at just about every other cafe. Until people want to ammend these health and safety regulations, they need to quit complaining.

What I really don't get is why its okay for Starbucks baristas to whipe the steaming wands with towels drenched in sanitizer, then put the towels back into a bucket that gets changed every hour, but its not okay to do the same for the utensils. They should just put sanitizer in those sinks and change the water when they change the buckets...

I think we are being a little harsh here to target Starbucks when i'm sure their conduct is not much different than those of similar establishments. I also know that each night they will donate their pastries to local shelters which does help to eliminate the waste they would have and helps to give back to the community and fight hunger

FUCK STARBUCKS and the rest of you SHEEP that follow this hack organization !

Umm. Maybe you can go somewhere else? Remember, it is an endless drain on your pocketbook that pays for the endless water supply.

The tap water they use is bought and paid for by YOUR money.

Those are found in every resturant and coffee shop i have ever been in. if its such a big deal to you, why don't you all start carrying your own utensils around wherever you go, and you can choose to wash them as often as you like, or not at all, because that would be a waste of water....