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Who patronizes Starbucks?

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by Godiva, Oct 6, 2008.

  1. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    The Sun (UK) is reporting a global Starbucks policy of leaving the water taps running constantly. I don't drink coffee so am not likely to find myself in a Starbucks. But if *you* do and you do, please check on the tap on the sink described in the article. At least one Starbucks in Los Angeles was observed with this tap running. In So. Cal we can't afford this kind of wasteful behavior. If Starbucks is going to try to claim being "green" then they need to shut the water off. This apparently is a policy not just in the U.K. but found in Starbucks all over. And, as the article states, there is no reason to leave the tap running.

    "The giant coffee chain has a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop at all its 10,000 outlets worldwide, wasting 23.4 MILLION litres a day."

    "Every Starbucks branch has a cold tap behind the counter providing water for a sink called a “dipper wellâ€, used for washing spoons and utensils. Staff are banned from turning the water off under bizarre health and safety rules — bosses claim a constant flow stops germs breeding in the taps."

    "Our undercover team checked Starbucks outlets across the UK and around the world and found some baffled staff did not use the running tap and did not even know what it was for.

    At Starbucks in Covent Garden, London, a worker shrugged and said: “We’ve got to keep it like that. I don’t know why.â€

    In Bristol a tap was seen running full on for 15 minutes.

    Similar scenes were witnessed in Derby, Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham and Bath.

    On 52nd Street New York, a tap was running the whole time our investigators were there and nothing was cleaned under it.

    It was the same in Los Angeles and in Sydney, Australia.

    Australia is in the grip of a seven-year drought which is the worst for a century.

    Staff at one of the 50 Starbucks in Beijing, China, threatened to call cops as we photographed a running tap.

    In Vienna, Austria, Starbucks staff confirmed the tap was always left running.

    In Cluj, Romania — also hit by a drought — a Starbucks worker said of the tap: “We don’t know what it is. Nobody ever uses it.†"

    "And the claim that running taps are needed for hygiene reasons was dismissed by experts as “nonsenseâ€. "
     
  2. Sufferin' Prius Envy

    Sufferin' Prius Envy Platinum Member

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    I don't think they are wasting the water down the drain.
    I think they recycle the dirty water into their espresso drinks . . . at least they taste that way to me. :p
     
  3. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    Don't go to starbuck. Don't drink coffee and their products are loaded with sugar. Too bloody expensive anyways.
     
  4. skruse

    skruse Senior Member

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    I patronize Starbucks to obtain the coffee grounds for use as compost in our garden. Otherwise we always avoid Starbucks - too expensive, too high in sugar.
     
  5. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    Next time you go, can you see if their sink tap is running?
     
  6. JamesWyatt

    JamesWyatt Señior Member

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    For some strange reason I feel the urge to go pee.
     
  7. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    drip... drip... drip...
     
  8. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    I went to the official site for Leo DiCaprio's movie "The 11th hour" and soon realized that Starbucks apparently had a big hand in supporting that film. On the website you get to see how environmentally tapped in Starbucks is.

    The next day I was out walking with my wife and there was a trash bin outside a Starbucks literally overflowing with plastic and paper coffee cups. If only their eyes could see what their mouths are saying and their hands are doing.
     
  9. rigormortis

    rigormortis Active Member

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    i don't go to starbucks, but thanks for posting this. this sounds crazy. they are actually allowed to do this in the united states????? whats wrong with starbucks just spending $7-14 a month on restaurant santizier? are they too cheap to install a seperate sink to soak dishes in for 60 seconds and only dump it when the sanitizer sink becomes dirty? sometimes 1 oz to 1 gallon of water will last the entire day, and there is no need for a rinse as long as you keep it @ 150 ppm. thats what all the restaurants do.

    and at the temperature that coffee is served, theres no bacteria anway.

    maybe they are afraid that if they drop thier water usage by using santizing solotion, they would be able to drop prices
     
  10. rigormortis

    rigormortis Active Member

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    according to the average home car wash with a nozzle, thats enough water for me to wash my prius every day for 554 years!!!
     
  11. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    I do go to Starbucks, and I have seen that running water, and I asked about it, and it gets filtered, and run back in. It's on a pump, you know, like you would have in a fish tank, only obviously fancier.

    I was told it does not go down a drain.

    SO there is the scoop from the local Starbucks.
     
  12. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    If that is truly what is happening, that makes more environmental sense. But it still seems kinda stupid. Even if they were doing that...they're wasting electricity on the pump and filter.
     
  13. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    I have no idea.

    According to who T.J. talked to, they filter and recycle it.

    If that is the case, why weren't the patrons in the other Starbucks told this? It's why I asked the question.

    So.... anyone else willing to ask their local Starbucks about the tap and if it's really filtered and recycled or just "on"?
     
  14. rigormortis

    rigormortis Active Member

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    does anyone have the corporate address of starbucks? i want to write them a letter
     
  15. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    i'm disappointed to see stupid things like this come out of people's complete lack of understanding of science...

    yes, some bacteria makes people sick. no, you're not going to give people food poisoning by turning off the damned tap water.
     
  16. wchardin

    wchardin Senior Member

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    I go to starbucks because I have a couple of friends that work there. I usually get stuff half off or free, but I don't think the stuff is worth full price. I will ask them about their water situation and see what they say. I haven't see an running tap though.
     
  17. AussieOwner

    AussieOwner Active Member

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    After reading the above, and as I am at lunch, thought I would take a walk to check the local Starbucks. I never patronise them - I refuse to drink dishwater, but visiting them to check on the tap at least gives me a little exercise:D. I can report that at least one shop here in Sydney does not have any running taps. Mind you, if they did have a running tap, then they would be most likely to be fined under current water restrictions.

    I would also question the use of cold water to clean anything. When I worked in a local restaurant, I was told that all washing of anything to do with food prepartion had to be in hot water - never use cold.
     
  18. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    I think as the Mythbusters would say....this story is busted.

    I don't know about all of those Starbucks in the UK and the others that were "investigated" but we have an account from Australia and several from the U.S. that say no, Starbucks does not have a tap constantly running.
     
  19. sdtundra

    sdtundra Senior Member

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    After readin this yesterday, I went to 2 different ones today just to look for that. Just walked in and out, both had the tap on.
     
  20. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    I was raised in the restaurant business, and when we wanted to add Ice Cream service to the menu, the health department told us we would have to have a Dipper sink, with constantly running water, to keep the scoops in.

    I think it may depend entirely on the local Health Department regulations as to whether or not any coffee shop, ice cream parlor, or other food service location, is required to use running water. The corollary to that, of course, is that it is not just Starbucks.