Starbucks wasting millions of gallons of water?
"STARBUCKS was blasted by environmental experts last night after Britain's Sun newspaper accused it of pouring millions of litres of precious water down the drain at its coffee shops."
"The giant coffee chain allegedly has a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop at all its 10,000 outlets worldwide, wasting millions of litres a day.
That would provide enough daily water for the entire two million-strong population of drought-hit Namibia or fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes."
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Woah! What the heck? Read the story here.
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15 Comments:
I think people see the point that it is a lot of wasted water but the comment about providing water to a population in another country is retarded, unless someone plans on shipping that same water to them free of charge in...plastic bottles?
Cassaendra at 7:08AM on 10/07/08
@Cassaendra ~ *clapping heard here*
izatryt at 7:49AM on 10/07/08
I worked at one for awhile - I'm sure we wasted water, but we certainly didn't have a tap running non-stop!
KarynMC at 7:59AM on 10/07/08
Here's a response:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7654691.stm
The company says the flow services a "dipper well", used for keeping utensils clean, and that the taps run at very low pressure ... "Dipper wells use a stream of continuous cold fresh-running water to rinse away food residue, help keep utensils clean and prevent bacterial growth," the Press Association news agency quoted the spokeswoman as saying.
Gee ... every friggin' ice cream shop I've ever been in, including pre-Starbucks, uses these dipper wells, as do other food service places.
I guess if Starbucks does it, it must be wrong ...
LunaPierCook at 8:20AM on 10/07/08
@Cassaendra nicely put.
I can't stand arguments like that, it brings me back to my childhood hearing about all the starving children in China, Africa or insert your country of choice who would love to have that slab of liver or pile of lima beans. Ya well bring me a box and I'll ship it right over to them. Hey, how about just stop wasting water---simple, without the theatrics.
finsbigfan at 8:20AM on 10/07/08
@Cassaendra and finsbigfan - I don't think the point is that it would be practical to ship the water to Namibia. The point is to reexamine wastefulness in understandable terms. If the article said X number of millions of gallons per year only, it would be harder for readers to understand than when it's put into human terms. Adding a reminder that there are populations who are dying for lack of a resource that we blithely waste is important and relevant.
"Starving children in China" is a cliche, and is probably a point wasted on kids - but the fact that a lot of Westerners waste more food in a day than some people have to eat in the first place isn't something to be shrugged off. Maybe it's annoying to be reminded how wasteful the Western lifestyle can be, but surely our annoyance is less of a concern than the suffering of those who lack vital resources.
producestories at 8:41AM on 10/07/08
Producestories: respectfully, I disagree. Its not a good point to make in such a story, at least not in the way that it was made. The implication is that if only Starbucks (or whoever else) would just turn off their taps then people in Namibia would have enough water. It confuses, obscures and conflates the issues. The issues are 1) many countries and many people (and corporations/businesses) in those countries waste a lot of water and we need to cut back on that tremendously, and, 2) there are a lot of countries and parts of countries that are enduring lengthy drought and other countries and parts of countries that simply don't have sufficient safe water for bathing or drinking. Making those appear to be the same issue doesn't allow for working on both of them at the same time as it makes it appear as though working on issue 1 will have any affect whatsoever on issue 2.
This is the same as the "starving children in Africa" cliche. Its not annoying, its just decidedly unhelpful in context.
ccbweb at 10:18AM on 10/07/08
@ccbweb - You are right that the phrasing makes the connection a little too close - "That would provide" is the wrong verbiage. They should have said something more along the lines of: "To put it in perspective, the amount of water Starbucks is pouring down the drain is the equivalent of enough daily water for the entire two million-strong population of drought-hit Namibia or enough to fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes."
I still think that keeping these equivalences in perspective is relevant, but I agree that the wording in the article implies too close a connection between the drought victims in Namibia and Starbucks' resource wastage.
producestories at 11:32AM on 10/07/08
I agree with finsbigfan - I hated that argument from my parents as a kid. "There are starving children in this country..." I ALWAYS wanted to respond, ok well I'll gladly give them my food! I don't want it! As for Starbucks, I don't think they're the only ones that do this.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 11:59AM on 10/07/08
@Luna-Thank you for posting that because if you didn't, I was going to. I would like to put into context the stream of water people are referring to (yes, I did work for Starbucks). Think a water fountain-now take that flow and cut in half, maybe even a quarter and there you have it. Starbucks is not the only company to do this so I fail to understand why they are getting blasted for it. Maybe because of the amount of stores? But, there are ice cream chains too...
That said, i do agree there is waste in our country and something should be done. But this is not the way to go about. If you highlight Starbucks-highlight everyone that does the same thing.
Butrflygirly at 12:43PM on 10/07/08
I just posted a question on this on my blog, including some of the history of the device. Turns out it's been around since the 1940s. Maybe it's time a different solution was found for the Dipwell's purpose, and the Dipwell itself retired.
LunaPierCook at 12:58PM on 10/07/08
I wonder if they'd complain that starbucks was poisoning everybody if they were using chemicals to prevent bacteria instead of a stream of water. It's a fine line there- food poisoning, running water or chemicals....
cmtigger at 9:38PM on 10/07/08
OK, i've worked at coffee shops--not starbucks, but this is probably what's going on...
in a coffee shop you have what's called a well...it's a bucket set into the counter by your espresso machine or drink finishing area. there's a running tap constantly running fresh water into this well, and through drainholes near the top. barspoons, spare thermometers, etc are kept in the well, and the water, circulating from bottom to top, cleans lighter stuff(say, milk foam or a bit of chocolate) from the utensils.
so yes, there IS a running tap, but the average well is about the diameter of a CD, and maybe 6, 7 inches deep. it takes about 5 mins to fill up, to give an idea of how much water is flowing here.
bottom line?
yes, there's a constantly flowing tap, but it's for sanitation reasons, and the amount of water pales in comparisons to other areas(take a look in your average commercial kitchen, for instance). When you use ridiculous overstatements like the one you've got here, it sounds like some kind of huge amount, but again, divide that by 10,000, and suddenly it's not so large.
rasellers0 at 2:55AM on 10/08/08
IMHO- I think they are wasting more water on the stuff they sadly pass as coffee. Of course, this is one persons opinion.
Pavlov at 8:28PM on 10/15/08
Here is a great article about saving money on your Starbucks' coffee. Check it out:
http://www.collegecandy.com/reality/13549
CollegeCandyGirl at 10:55AM on 11/03/08