Pret A Manger doubles reusable coffee cup discount

The sandwich chain had been offering a 25p discount for customers who use reusable cups since April 2017, but has this week announced that the discount will be increased to 50p. Pret A Manger’s chief executive Clive Schlee tweeted his delight at the new discount.

“I’m delighted you can now get 50p off a hot drink when you bring your reusable cup to Pret. I hope this will make a difference,” Schlee tweeted.

With research showing that an estimated 2.5 billion paper coffee cups are discarded in the UK each year, high-street chains have responded to media and consumer backlash. Pret A Manger’s original discount followed similar schemes from other coffee chain shops.

Both Costa Coffee and Starbucks have introduced discounts for consumers with reusable cups. Like Pret A Manger, they have since evolved these strategies to change behaviours and reduce waste.

Costa Coffee launched a recycling scheme in all of its stores to ensure that as many as possible of its own takeaway cups – and those from its competitors – are recycled. Starbucks followed with a similar initiative, launching a new in-store paper cup recycling bin aimed at encouraging customers to return take-away cups back into the store and boost overall recycling levels.

Pret A Manger’s announcement is timely. The Environmental Audit Committee is set to publish a report on coffee cup packaging on Friday (5 January).

Packaging plans

The high-street chain – along with McDonald’s, Costa Coffee, and Caffè Nero amongst others – is supporting a coffee cup recycling initiative led by charity Hubbub. Community campaigns in Manchester and London to promote the recyclability of high-street paper coffee cups have collected more than 1.2m cups since October last year.

Pret A Manger has been working with companies such as Simply Cups and A Short Walk to introduce recyclable and renewable packaging for its coffee cups. The company is also looking to reduce the number of plastic bottles sold at its outlets and on the high streets, by offering free filtered water and reusable glass bottles at its three Veggie Pret shops.

Matt Mace