Retailer says product will be the first 100% paper, plastic-free and easily recyclable takeaway coffee cup on the high street
Marks & Spencer has launched a new paper fibre coffee cup, which it says will remove over 20 million units of plastic from its food business.
The high street giant claims to be the first major high street coffee retailer to offer its hot drinks in 100% paper, plastic-free and easily recyclable coffee cups and lids.
The brand new and exclusive cup – which proudly displays a ‘100% recyclable’ banner – is available initially across 20 M&S sites including cafes, vended coffee points and marketplaces within M&S Food Halls, and will soon to rolling out to all 300-plus M&S cafes across the UK.
Regular paper coffee cups have long been a huge thorn in the side of the recycling industry. Whilst most are predominantly made of paper, a thin layer of plastic coating the inside of the cup – to prevent the paper becoming wet – means that the products can not be easily recycled.
As a result, coffee cups have not been suitable for regular household recycling, requiring instead takeback schemes and specific recycling processes, which are operated by only a small number of UK recycling firms.
M&S’s new cups and lids are made from innovative organic materials which can be recycled like any other paper products.
Independent testing and assurance found the cups’ lining – which has a plastic free accreditation – to replicate the same barrier effect of plastic, but without the same long-term environmental impact if not properly recycled.
M&S predicts that their new coffee cup and lid will remove 20 million units of plastic packaging from its food business each year. This follows on from the introduction of reusable paper bags at tills across every M&S store.
The retailer has a target of removing one billion units of plastic from its food packaging and so is looking for further ways to reduces its environmental impact.
Of course, the most sustainable option for a takeaway coffee is for customers to provide their own reusable cup, and M&S are offering cafe customers a 50p discount on all hot drinks if they make this eco-friendly choice.
For those that don’t or can’t, M&S believe that their new cups provide the next best thing, when it comes to being kind to the planet.
M&S Food managing Director Alex Freudmann said: “Our customers look to us to lead on the environment and we are constantly aiming to raise the bar and lower our impact on the planet. With one in every two of us visiting a coffee shop several times a week the long-lasting damage coffee cups can have on the planet without being properly recycled is huge.
“That’s why we were determined to bring a sustainable alternative to what’s out there today, and we’re proud to offer customers the first fully recyclable coffee cup on the high street. For me our coffee now ticks three big boxes – it’s delicious, it supports our growers and suppliers with every purchase, and now it comes in easy to recycle cups too.”
Image courtesy of Marks & Spencer.
