Itâs been almost two years since McDonaldâs and Starbucks announced the NextGen Cup Challenge, a design competition that sought a recyclable solution to single-use paper cups. While we know that recycling a paper cup with a plastic liner CAN be done (just apparently not on a massive scale), it seems the two QSR behemoths have stumbled upon a stopgap in the form of reusable cups.
This week, McDonaldâs and Starbucks will implement a pilot program in a handful of independent coffee shops in San Francisco and Palo Alto that utilizes âsmartâ reusable cups. The cups themselves are made of plastic, but they come with RFID chips and QR codes so they can be tracked. While theyâre still working out the kinks for this complex endeavor, cup drop-off locations will be strategically placed around town and inside civic buildings, and theyâll be gathering data to make this as seamless a transition as possible.
