Many of us have the luxury of being able to buy coffee at a shop rather than making the same coffee at home. We claim that we can never make it as good or that the seasonal flavors only come around so often. These justifications give into our desire to buy something we do not need, but that we want. When ordering from a coffee shop, you are also able to see the selection of pastries they offer, from cookies to cakes to loaves of bread. But what happens to these treats at the end of the day? Consumers are oblivious to the hidden costs of running a coffee shop, especially the food waste behind conveniently buying coffee and pastries. With the increased attention to global warming, corporations like Starbucks have made efforts to be more sustainable, although many Starbucks employees claim otherwise. There have been various viral videos of Starbucks employees posting their store’s food waste that have caused consumers to question whether or not Starbucks is really putting in the effort to be sustainable. Starbucks claims that it’s making efforts to be a greener business, but there is evidence that shows otherwise.

For some, drinking coffee is a lifestyle. It is a part of their routine to help motivate them throughout the day. A handful of people splurge on getting coffee from their favorite businesses every morning like Starbucks, Dunkin’, or a local coffee shop. What some consumers are unaware of is that “the hospitality industry is the third largest food waste generator in Europe” (Filimonau & Krivocova & Pettit, 2019). While this research is based on Europe, these words are still applicable to different parts of the world, such as the United States. Filimonau, Krivoca, and Pettit explain that food waste has been identified to be a political issue, yet little to no action has been taken to decrease food waste. Additionally, any effort to change has been solely focused on ways of disposing food waste rather than learning to limit it. In other words, the effect of conveniently buying coffee also contributes to food waste problems. However, food waste is a collaborative effort. It is done not by one, rather by many doing the same actions; therefore, if we want to see a change in the environment, we have to be willing to change our habits of overconsumption.

A small number of Starbucks employees have been documenting their experiences in the workplace. In some of these videos, they have exposed that Starbucks accumulates tons of food waste every day.. Employees claim that every night after the store closes, they must throw away leftover products like cookies, sandwiches, and milk. Most of the products are still in their original packaging and have never been touched. Such videos quickly caught the attention of major media news outlets and consumers. Most people were disgusted to know that their favorite company was so wasteful, advocating for Starbucks to change its behavior. However, despite the backlash, Starbucks continues to order and produce more products than it can sell.

Why would a company want to order more food than it can sell, only to throw it away later?

Why would a company want to order more food than it can sell, only to throw it away later? I had the opportunity to speak to an ex-Starbucks employee, Abby (for the purpose of this article the name used is Abby), for their insider perspective in working with the company. She claimed that her manager had them throw away pounds of packaged food for sanitary reasons. When throwing away the product, she noticed that a lot of the food was not expired. When she questioned the manager, they again claimed they were obligated to throw it away to “keep up the integrity of the food” (Anonymous, personal communication, November 19, 2023). However, the managers would offer the food to their employees first, later throwing the rest away. Starbucks is not the only company to throw away large amounts of food, but it is one of the businesses who have been called out for this behavior. The film Just Eat It shows various scenes of dumpsters filled to the brim with packaged food. For food businesses, throwing food away in dumpsters is the cheapest option to keep down costs of labor and company resources.

Various closed and sealed Starbucks items thrown in the dumpster, NY Post image

In the film, Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustemeyer challenged themselves to eat food waste and not purchase food through a supermarket for the next six months. They would have to rely on whatever was left over and thrown away in dumpsters. During their trips dumpster diving, they would find piles and piles of the same foods being thrown out behind grocery stores and restaurants, so starving was never an issue. On seeing the piles of food, they felt pressured to take most of it home. They knew if they did not take the food home then it would only end up in the landfill.

For Starbucks, quality is the priority. Starbucks wants to be able to maintain the brand’s reputation. It is a business whose goal is to make a profit from selling coffee and various food products. One of the many costs of running a business is food waste. As a business, it is understandable that Starbucks wants to replace and restock products to ensure that the product is fresh and tastes good. Starbucks would never want to sell an expired sandwich or sell out of a popular pastry. If that were to happen, consumers would be quick to move onto another company that provides similar, but higher quality, products and services. In order to keep their customers, Starbucks orders products with the intent to have enough for anyone who wants one. Additionally, to ensure quality in products, stores will order newer and fresher products even if they still have boxes of products in storage. One thing that all businesses want to avoid is a lawsuit. When a consumer is served poor quality food then they have the right to take action and bring it to trial. This could also bring bad publicity to the company and give the business a bad reputation, so to avoid this issue, the coffee business over orders products. For Starbucks, the priority is to satisfy the needs of the customers and other initiatives, such as sustainability, come after.

But this does not solve the original issue. There is still a lot of food waste due to the demand that Starbucks has. Why would they not drop off the packaged food to a local homeless shelter? That way, the food would be eaten instead of thrown away in a dumpster.

Statement from the Starbucks Stories & News page of Hunger Relief

In 2016, Starbucks started a food donation initiative called FoodShare to give their unsold products to various communities that would help people facing hunger (Starbucks Stories). Through this initiative, Starbucks has been able to partner with various organizations like Feeding America and No Kid Hungry to help decrease hunger in America. After being socially exposed for throwing away so much food, these are some of the efforts that Starbucks have made to better their reputation. Rather than being part of the food waste issue, Starbucks wants to show its efforts to help resolve the issue of hunger. It wants to be able to keep consumers, so if the coffee chain can show that they are fixing the food waste issue, then consumers can continue to shop with them without the guilt. However, this effort does not resolve the bigger issue that they still contribute thousands of dollars towards food waste.

One hypothesis I have is that Starbucks makes these claims to calm the consciousness of the consumer. In other words, the company is trying to greenwash their consumers. Greenwashing is “describe[d as] the practice of making unwarranted or overblown claims of sustainability or environmental friendliness in an attempt to gain market share” (Dahl 2010).  If Starbucks is able to showcase themselves as a loving and sustainable company, then consumers will continue to shop at their stores. They are trying to reassure consumers that they are doing their part in helping the food waste problem, so that consumers do not feel bad about buying their products. Additionally, the FoodShare initiative brings Starbucks into a new and positive light. By partaking and engaging with the community, the initiative shows that Starbucks cares, bringing positive public relations to the company.

Starbucks employee partaking in Starbucks’ Food Share initiative, Starbucks image

According to another anonymous ex-Starbucks employee, Jane (for the purpose of this article the name used is Jane), their store was able to participate in the Starbucks’ Food Share initiative (Anonymous, personal communication, November 19, 2023 ). However, this behavior was done out of the kindness of the employees, not by the instruction of the business. Despite Starbucks store regulations, Jane and her co-workers gave out their unused products that they did not sell. These employees saw a vulnerable community and wanted to help it. At the end of their shift, if their store had a lot of product past its’ sale date, they would drive it down to a local homeless shelter. Thus, even under the same regulations, rules were enforced differently from store to store.

But why aren’t more stores giving out the food that will just be thrown away? Starbucks has various websites showing their intention to be sustainable, however, there are not many participating stores. The problem is that transporting the goods to somewhere else is an extra cost, in money and time. In order to get products to a shelter, someone needs to sort through the products, load the products into a vehicle, travel, and unload them, which takes time and money out of the business. For Faith and her store, they voluntarily did this for no gain. For Starbucks, they find it more convenient to throw their older products away than to invest their resources into doing something they are not mandated to do. Again, Starbucks is a business that is focused on making a profit. Their goal is never to be the most sustainable business.

It is easy to be persuaded to buy a new drink, especially with the rewards system that many businesses have set up to keep consumers coming back. But there are different behaviors that can be adopted that may help maximize sustainability. For example, technology has greatly improved in the last few years, and businesses should work towards improving their inventory systems. Businesses are able to better estimate and monitor their consumer’s desires and regulate what is low in stock and what keeps being thrown out. With this change, businesses will be able to keep their profits, rather than invest in products that will be thrown away, and it will produce less food waste for the Earth.

One thing to note is that businesses act based on the desires of their consumers. Businesses cannot own all the fault of contributing to all the food waste problems. Businesses will produce for the consumers; therefore, we should change our mentality as consumers. Ideally, I would suggest that everyone should buy less from businesses and make more of their coffee at home, or even buy their pastries at their nearest convenience store, but these suggestions are unlikely. Why? Because we are consumers and consumers favor convenience.

Unfortunately, there are people who believe that throwing away food is normal and acceptable. As consumers, we are conditioned to think that food should look a certain way. As consumers, we have been conditioned to to think that food should look a certain way. If a cereal box is dented, then we need to reach to the back to get another one. If we see a bruised peach, it needs to be thrown out. In fact, Just Eat It shows that during the manufacturing processes, farmers will often separate the peaches solely based on the physicality of the fruit. Due to consumer’s mentality, businesses will continue to order excessive amounts of products to satisfy consumers.

This brings us to question what actions can take place to help solve the food waste problem. To be transparent, I am not sure that there is one solution to the problem. There are too many aspects to food waste to solely rely on one plan. Rather, it will take several sustainability plans to help decrease food waste. One place to start is to educate yourself as a consumer. Being aware of the problem is a start, but pushing yourself to redefine your standards of good food is also important. A bruised fruit or a dented cereal box should not be considered food waste.

References

Dahl, Richard. (2010). Green washing: do you know what you’re buying? Environmental Health Perspectives. 118(6). A246-A252. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.118-a246

Filimonau, Viachaslau. (2019). An exploratory study of managerial approaches to food waste mitigation in coffee shops. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 76(A), 48-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.04.010

Starbucks. (2023). Hunger Relief. Starbucks Stories & News. https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/hunger-relief/

Visschers, Vivianne H.M., Wickli, Nadine., & Siegrist, Michael. (2016). Sorting out food waste behavior: A survey on the motivators and barriers of self-reported amounts of food waste in households. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 45, 66-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.11.007