Oh, patents! Starbucks® strawless lids

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

An estimated 150 million metric tons of plastic pollute the earth’s oceans with 8 million metric tons added each year (Jordan, 2018). Ocean plastics pollution is the issue that Starbucks® targeted, in particular, with the design of recyclable strawless lids. Even if straws admittedly only represent 1% of the plastic waste dumped into the ocean, straws are too light to be recycled (they fall off conveyor belts), ending up in landfills where they take 500 years to decompose (Ocean Consevancy video). Their size also causes some of the most insidious damage to sea creatures, since they are ingestible, and sometimes only partially, which causes obstructions (Parker, 2018). 

As part of the Starbucks® larger goal to reduce its environmental footprint, the company has partnered with the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, which removed 1 million straws from beaches and waterways in 2019. Starbucks® is also part of the Ocean Conservancy’s Fighting for Trash Free Seas Alliance®, targeting corporations to stop the flow of trash as its source. 

The strawless lid is made from polypropylene, which meets the Association of Plastic Recyclers design guidelines for recyclability, and can be recycled in many markets in the U.S. and Canada. The Starbucks® lid is standard on all iced coffee, tea, espresso beverages, and Starbucks Refreshers®. The strawless lid is modeled after the lid customers will recognize from Starbucks® hot drinks, and has approximately nine percent less plastic than the flat lid and straw, historically used for iced beverages. The sipping opening of the lid also comes in various widths, depending on the consistency of the beverage, with wider openings intended for thicker cold foam beverages (Starbucks Staff, 2020). 

The strawless lid was awarded the US design patent USD720616, titled Lid. As a reminder, a design patent covers the ornamental aspects of an invention, or how the invention looks. In contrast, a utility patent covers the functional and manufacturing aspects of an invention, or how the invention works (MPEP Chapt. 1502.01).

The Figure 1 patent drawing is included below together with an image of Starbucks® strawless lid, fitted on several Starbucks® cold beverages.

References

Jordan, B. (Sept. 18, 2018). Do plastic straws really make a difference? Stanford Earth Matters Magazine.
https://earth.stanford.edu/news/do-plastic-straws-really-make-difference#gs.w3eo3

Ocean Conservancy 
https://oceanconservancy.org/

Ocean Conservancy - Fighting for Trash Free Seas Alliance®.
https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/plastics-in-the-ocean/trash-free-seas-alliance/

Ocean Conservancy - Here's how plastic straws are wrecking out oceans. YouTube video. 
https://youtu.be/gAm8eNL8XjQ

Parker, L. (Feb. 23, 2018). Straw wars: The Fight to Rid the Oceans of Discarded Plastic. 
 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/plastic-straws-ocean-trash-environment

Staff (Sept. 10, 2020). Strawless lids now available across the US and Canada.
https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/starbucks-strawless-lids-now-available-across-the-u-s-and-canada/

USPTO MPEP – Chapt. 1502-01 – Distinction between design and utility patent.
https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html