Reusable water bottles have been used for years to avoid plastic waste, but the recent Stanley cup craze emphasizes the battle between being environmentally friendly and contributing to further waste.
Stanley cups gained popularity with their Quencher model, featuring a convenient handle, straw and size, fitting perfectly into most cup-holders. Stanley’s website claims their cups are able to keep iced drinks cold for 48 hours because they are built with a double-wall vacuum insulation, which attracts customers who want ice cold water at all times of the day.
The amenities of the cup and its lightweight, convenient nature has grasped the attention of people all over the country, making Stanley the go-to company for a new water bottle.
As with many popular brands, Stanley has become a new point of focus for collectors. On Jan. 3, Stanley partnered with Target-owned Starbucks stores to release a limited-edition pink cup. People across the country posted themselves camping outside of Target’s doors on social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook.
Once inside, people recorded themselves running to the shelves where the exclusive Stanley cups were stocked, pushing customers and stealing cups out of others’ carts. Many of these hopeful customers walked away empty-handed, while others bought multiple cups with the intent to upsell them on online marketplaces or display them on shelves with the rest of their collections.
In the following weeks, people raced through Targets across the country to buy the Valentine’s Day Stanley cup collection, featuring red and “cosmo pink” editions of the popular 40-ounce cup, which created frenzies in the stores.
The company is working toward environmentally-conscious practices, committing to use recycled stainless steel in 50% of their products by 2025. Additionally, Stanley switched to shipping their products in paper wraps instead of plastic, avoiding 77 metric tons of plastic per year.
While Stanley cups are made to last, their frequent releases of new colors, patterns and themes encourage people to purchase multiple cups. Since 2019, the brand has seen a $676 million increase in revenue. The cup’s increased popularity has created a larger audience of consumers, contributing to the extreme increase in revenue.
People who like the new colors in upcoming drops are encouraged to act fast because of the high demand. For example, the limited-edition Lunar New Year Stanley featuring colorful scales to honor the Year of the Dragon sold out online within 30 minutes of its release. People feel pressured to order the cup quickly, leaving little time to think about whether they need another cup.
Because the Stanley cup itself is intended to be eco-friendly and reusable, people feel good about their purchase. Customers can justify buying multiple Stanley cups because it’s better for the environment, but they forget manufacturing and shipping each of these cups negatively impacts the environment.
Prior to Stanley, Hydroflask was all the rage. Before Hydroflask, it was Yeti. As trends change, people feel compelled to follow the crowd. Once Stanley cups inevitably go out of style, they will end up in the landfill beside the plastic water bottles consumers have been avoiding all along.
Customers occasionally buy multiple brands of reusable water bottles so they can see which one they like the best. Unfortunately, once they find their favorite, the remaining cups are left to collect dust in the back of the cabinet.
Avoiding the overconsumption of reusable products reinforces the environmental benefits, allowing Stanley cups to be a great option for people who want their ice-cold water with them at all times in a sleek, colorful vessel.
