I’ve always had the feeling, though, that places like Starbucks are so wasteful. I don’t usually go to Starbucks, but the ones I go to always give you the joe in the paper cups, even if you’re a sit-in customer. What’s up with that?

Re: recycling – I sent an email to Starbucks corporate and asked them if they do. Will let you know what they say.

1) Starbucks gives employees 5% paid time (a la Google’s 20% time) to do community service in the neighborhood of their store.

2) The first “service” project is to figure out how they can help all the businesses in their neighborhood recycle better. This will vary from city to city, State to State, so it needs to be a localized solution. It could range from simple evangelism (encouraging other businesses to recycle) all the way up to figuring out how to scale the Starbuck’s recycling infrastructure (the bins, the trash pickup service, etc.) to accommodate the entire neighborhood.

3) Regardless of the specifics of the solution, Starbucks could encourage its clientele– the residents of the neighborhood– to also volunteer to help make the program work– and to patronize those other neighborhood businesses that choose to participate.

This is just off the top of my head. Other ideas?