Starbucks Wastes 23.4 Million Liters of Water Daily

by Stephanie Rogers · View Comments

British newspaper The Sun discovered last weekend that Starbucks has been wasting millions of liters of water every day by keeping a tap running non-stop at all of its 10,000 locations worldwide. The amount of water wasted is enough to provide daily water for the 2 million drought-stricken Namibians or to fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes.

Every single Starbucks store has a cold tap behind the counter for a sink called a ‘dipper well’ which is used for washing spoons and utensils, and staff are banned from turning the water off under the misguided notion that leaving the tap on stops germs from breeding in the taps.

From The Sun:

And the claim that running taps are needed for hygiene reasons was dismissed by experts as “nonsense”.

A single Starbucks tap left running for just over three minutes wastes the amount of water one African needs to survive for a day in drought conditions.

The Sun investigated after a Starbucks executive revealed the policy in a letter to a couple who complained about a tap left running at their local branch.

Lisa Woolfe, 39, of Cuffley, Herts, said: “I noticed a small sink behind the counter had its tap running. The assistant said the store was told to keep it running as it cleaned the pipes.

“I could not believe it but when we contacted head office, they confirmed that the taps were left on and the water was not recycled.

“It is an absolutely astonishing waste of water, especially for a company which prides itself on its green credentials.”

The Sun confirmed taps running at Starbucks all over the world, from Vienna, Austria to Cluj, Romania (there are Starbucks in Romania?). It’s even happening in drought-stricken Australia, where water is currently a very precious commodity. Check out video of the taps running at The Sun website.

Way to waste, Starbucks. This is really an astoundingly stupid thing to do, especially for a company so conscious of its image – did they think people would forgive them because they claim to be doing it for hygienic reasons?

If you still frequent Starbucks, this is as good a reason as any to shift your business to other coffeehouses – hopefully local ones. It’s an outrage that they would hold such blatant disregard not only for the conservation of precious resources but for the people who are desperately in need of water.

Link [The Sun]
Photo credit: EarthFirst composite/Flickr user mobilestreetlife

Tagged as: Jerkass, Starbucks, Water, Water Conservation

Mary

that's not all, here in Colorado they put the blenders under the tap, turn the HOT water on full blast and just let it run and run and run and run. It has been going for ten minutes at times. I have joined the facebook page Starbucks Stop Wasting our Water and I would love to upload videos of this as well.

I have asked them at the district manager and down to stop but they could care less. I have officially stopped drinking their swill.

SBuxSux

The coffee always has a burnt flavor.

But, the thing I hate the most is the whole fake size name thing.

In true Pacific Northwest, through the looking glass style, the small is "Tall".

The medium is "Grande", which confuses Hispanic Nannies all over the more upscale Seattle suburbs. Grande should, by any sense of reality, mean the biggest size.

"Venti" is Italian for twenty, because it's a 20 ounce cup. The stupid, STUPID Northwest transplant Howard Shultz in all his hateful smug passive-agressive crap never stopped to realize that Italy was, is and always will be a metric country. You can't get 20 ounces of anything in Italy.

Here's something I like to do, which I humbly submit you all might fun to do on an otherwise dull day. I like to go to SBux and argue about the sizes for five to ten minutes in rush hour and then walk out without buying anything. I also have lately added the phrase "Stupid in THREE languages" which I picked up from a movie.

Try it! It's some of the most fun that can be had for free and a big "stick it" to a truly hateful corporation.

Peter from Oz

Great going, $tarbucks.

I sure hope you weren't pouring Sydney's drinking water down the drain and out to sea when our main dam fell to about 35% of capacity during the worst of the drought in 2007, which has prompted construction of a desalination plant
.

Not sorry they are closing their branches here.. their coffee didn't deserve the name and was overpriced to boot.

Josh

The author of this post has obviously never worked in a coffee shop before. This is standard practice for coffee shops(yes, even your magical local coffee shop) as it is the most efficient way of keeping the spoon used to make beverages clean. The tap is about the size of a pinhole and the water coming out is about a trickle. Only when you include all 10,000 stores around the world do you get such a massive number. It is actually a very efficient method because it allows you to keep a liter of standing water that is clean in order to rinse the spoon. Any other method would be far more dangerous in terms of bacteria(especially because of the massive volume of milk used, it is difficult to keep bacteria from growing), and would more than likely waste more water because you would need a more powerful tap to rinse the spoon because the standing water well would not be sanitary enough to keep.

This "dipping well" is even required in most jurisdictions(here in the US) by local and state health code regulations.

FAeafga

Seattle's Best which is owned by starbucks also does this

NSD

Yes, unfortunately we have Starbucks in Romania. Yuk.

Melissa

It is amazing how leaving a tap on can waste so much water. As a mom trying to go green, I have teach my children these simple facts. We took Sloan Barnett's Test, the Body Burden Test, and it is wonderful to know how to make simple changes in our living space to live less toxic and help save the environment. Her book "Green Goes with Everything" has given me so many ideas. Maybe Starbucks would gain more business if they promoted green living and stopped wasting water.

http://www.greengoeswitheverything.com/