Despite Starbucks advertising its cold beverage cups as "widely recyclable," research from environmental nonprofit Beyond Plastics found that not a single cup tracked during a three month period ended up at a recycling facility.

Between January and March 2026, Beyond Plastics placed 53 Bluetooth-enabled trackers inside Starbucks' in-store recycling bins. Of the 36 that provided data, 16 ended up in landfills, nine ended up at incinerator facilities, eight were last detected at waste transfer stations on the way to a landfill, three made it to material recovery facilities that sort plastics, and none were confirmed to be recycled. The cups collectively traveled thousands of miles, with four crossing state lines from New York City to a landfill in Ohio. 

"Starbucks is telling its customers that these plastic cups get recycled, but our trackers tell a different story," said Beyond Plastics president and former EPA regional administrator Judith Enck. 

As of February 2, Starbucks started billing its polypropylene plastic cups as widely recyclable in the United States, while claiming that more than 60% of U.S. households could recycle its cold cups curbside. The company previously committed to making 100% of its customer packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030, although nearly all of its 17,000-plus U.S. locations still use plastic cups and packaging.

The country's recycling rate for plastics is also under 6%, with the vast majority coming from PET materials commonly used in single use water bottles, and HDPE found in large jugs. And according to Beyond Plastics, there are very few facilities in the U.S. that can even recycle polypropylene in the first place.

In a statement to The Guardian, Starbucks took issue with Beyond Plastics' methodology, claiming that “studies that place electronic trackers inside cups do not reflect how recycling systems operate in practice."

“Recycling outcomes depend on the broader system – including local infrastructure, contamination levels and consumer participation – factors that extend beyond any single company," they added. "We are focused on what’s within our control: improving access to recycling, investing in innovation to strengthen recovery systems, and advancing reusable and alternative packaging solutions to reduce waste."