Starbucks has announced that it is committing $10M in partnership with Closed Loop Partners, a company that promotes sustainable consumer goods and recycling, to support the NextGen Cup Challenge. This aims to bring a fully recyclable and compostable cup to the market within three years in response to the environmental problems posed by the 60 billion paper and plastic cups distributed globally each year

Explains Rob Kaplan, managing director of Closed Loop Partners, “Through this partnership, the Challenge will enable leading innovators and entrepreneurs with financial, technical, and expert resources to fast-track global solutions, help get those solutions to shelf, through the recovery system and back into the supply chain.”
Starbucks says that information will be open source throughout the development process, so others can benefit and innovate on the path towards the development of recyclable and compostable cups worldwide. Said Andy Corlett, director of packaging R&D for Starbucks: “The idea of environmental sustainability in packaging is not just a Starbucks issue. It’s a global issue. Anything that gets us closer to that goal is not something we want to keep to ourselves.”