A call to several Starbucks locations this afternoon revealed that the Raleigh stores are in lock step with the coffee shop company’s policy of running a faucet during all business hours. This is their method for keeping spoons clean. When asked if Starbucks kept this up through the water crisis, an employee at the North Hills location replied “Yes we did.“ Another employee at a Glenwood Avenue location when asked what she thought of the policy “That’s just the way it is.“
As of today, UK starbucks reversed this policy after public outrage when the Sun broke the story of the policy. The Sun says that Starbucks wastes over 23 million liters of water or over 6 million gallons everyday from this policy.
All 10,000 shops worldwide gushed water into sinks to wash spoons, wasting enough to fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes. Starbucks said a flow was needed for hygiene reasons — a claim ridiculed by experts.
During the last year NC has spent most of the year in sever drought. Individuals were not allowed to water lawns or gardens, wash cars, and restaurants were prohibited from serving water without being asked. During this time Starbucks continued their policy of running the faucets all day long.
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