Landfills are filling up around the world and the average American throws away 4.4 pounds of trash per day as opposed to the global average of 2.6 pounds per day. Starbucks uses 8,070,428 cups per day. Their plastic cups are number 5 plastic, meaning they are not recyclable. The amount of cups being sold, which are going to be later thrown away, are a lot of plastic trash. If their cups were recyclable, the plastic trash would be reduced. Even the Starbucks paper cups are not truly recyclable due to a coating of polyethylene plastic on the inside of the cup. Starbucks has made several pledges to produce recyclable cups dating back to 2008 but its cups are still unable to be recycled. Bringing your own reusable cup is good too, if you don't want to stop shopping at Starbucks (the drinks are good, the cups not so much).