Starbucks Just Started Testing Reusable Cups that Get Washed After You're Done with Your Frappe

Saving the world, one chai latte at a time?

Starbucks just announced it's rolling out free reusable cups to London's Gatwick airport. Customers can return the reusable cup once they're done with their drink at any of five drop-off locations throughout the airport.

Otherwise, if customers select the standard paper cup, they'll pay a small extra fee of 5 pence (about 6 cents) on top of their coffee bill. The program, which will involve 2,000 reusable cups, aims to eliminate 7,000 paper cups in the month-long trial, according to CNBC.

Airport employees will then collect the cups from the drop-off points, wash them and return them to Starbucks for reuse.

Last year, Starbucks announced plans to eliminate plastic straws from all its stores by 2020. Starbucks stated this eco-friendly initiative will effectively reduce the production of more than 1 billion plastic straws, which are notoriously difficult to recycle and wreak havoc on marine life.

The reusable cups initiative will hopefully lessen the environmental impact of paper and plastic. According to the coffee chain, about 7 million paper cups are used at the airport annually, of which about 5.3 million are recycled. Through the new program, about 2,000 reusable cups will be in use at the terminal. From there, the reusable cups program could be rolled out to Starbucks airport locations around the world.

One small step for lessening our environmental impact, one massive leap for our iced-coffee selfies.