Starbucks accused of wasting 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.

Every Starbucks branch has a cold tap behind the counter providing water for a sink, called a dipper well, used for washing spoons and utensils.

Bizarre health and safety rules are said to ban staff from turning the water off, as bosses say that a constant flow stops germs breeding in the taps.

The huge Starbucks chain proudly boasts of its work for the environment. But British water companies accused it of harming the environment by frittering away a vital natural resource.

And experts dismissed the claim that it was necessary to run taps for hygiene reasons.

Even a slow-flowing tap spurts out at least three litres of water a minute, meaning British Starbucks wastes an estimated 1.63 million litres a day, according to The Sun.

A tap running for just over three minutes wastes the amount of water one African needs to survive a day in drought conditions.

The Sun investigated after a Starbucks executive revealed the policy in a letter to a couple who complained of a tap left running at their local branch.

Lisa Woolfe, 39, of Hertfordshire, said: "I noticed a small sink behind the counter had its tap running. The assistant said the store was told to keep it running, as it cleaned the pipes.

"I could not believe it but when we contacted head office, they confirmed that the taps were left on and the water was not recycled. It is an absolutely astonishing waste of water, especially for a company which prides itself on its green credentials."

The Sun's undercover team checked Starbucks outlets across Britain and some around the world, and found some baffled staff did not use the running tap and did not even know what it was for.

On 52nd St New York, a tap ran the whole time the paper's investigators were there, although nothing was cleaned under it. It was the same in Los Angeles and in Sydney.

Staff at one of the 50 Starbucks in Beijing threatened to call police as newspaper staff photographed a running tap.

In Vienna, Starbucks staff confirmed the tap was always left running.

In Romania, also hit by a drought, a Starbucks worker said of the tap: "We don't know what it is. Nobody ever uses it."

But staff at Melbourne's Swanston St store, one of the few left in Victoria, said taps weren't left on, and denied the practice had ever been employed. "That's never happened here. We don't waste water," the store manager said.