Starbucks are offering customers a reusable cup instead of paper as part of the #cupcupandaway campaign. During this trial period 7,000 disposable coffee cups could be saved.
Customers at the Starbucks store will have the option to borrow a free reusable cup for their drink instead of a paper cup. When finished people can drop off their cup at one of the five ‘Cup Check-In’ points.
Jaz Rabadia MBE, UK senior manager of energy and sustainability at Starbucks, said: “The purpose of working with Hubbub and Gatwick is to help create a new culture of reuse on-the-go by giving customers the option of a reusable cup instead of paper for free.
“We are optimistic that the ‘Cup Check-In’ points around the airport will provide enough places for customers to return their cups on the way to their gate, but also recognise this might not for everyone.”
Any customers wishing to use a disposable paper cup are still welcome and able to do so and will incur the 5p paper cup charge that is live in all Starbucks stores.
Rachel Thompson, sustainability lead, Gatwick Airport said: “There is strong public support for measures to reduce waste and we are delighted to support one of our retailers with an innovation that can help travellers do that. We are looking forward to seeing how the trial goes and what we can learn to improve the solution.
“This trial fits well with Gatwick’s own circular economy ethos, which sees us utilise as many recovered resources as possible from within the airport estate. By redesigning and investing in new waste collection and sorting facilities, and also in training to raise awareness about our journey toward zero waste, we have so far managed to hit a waste recycling and reuse rate of 70% this year. This includes all empty coffee cups and plastics and we also send zero waste to landfill.”
The aim of the trial is to put 2,000 reusable Starbucks cups in circulation through Gatwick’s South Terminal.
Trewin Restorick, chief executive and co-founder, Hubbub said: “We know that people care about waste, but it’s often hard to ‘do the right thing’ when travelling. We want to find out whether people will get on board with reusing cups, if we make it easy and convenient.
“The airport is the ideal environment to trial a reusable cup scheme, as it is a closed loop environment and has the potential to reduce large volumes of paper cup waste. What we learn here will provide valuable insight into how to deploy a reusable trial in not only other airports, but many other environments.”