Gatwick Airport has partnered with Starbucks and Hubbub to launch what is billed as the world’s first ever cup reuse trial.
Starbucks customers at the airport’s South Terminal will be given the option to borrow a free reusable cup for their drink instead of using a paper cup, which they can then drop off at one of five ‘Cup Check-In’ points throughout the airport before they board their flight.
The initiative forms part of a wider collaboration between Starbucks and Hubbub to tackle single use plastic pollution which has already seen Starbucks add a 5p charge to the cost of disposable cups across all its stores in Britain.
Starbucks will put 2,000 reusable cups in circulation throughout the South Terminal which, once collected, will be washed and returned to store.
Most people do not take reusable cups to airports and as a consequence Gatwick currently disposes of 7 million paper cups annually of which 5.3 million are recycled.
The ambition behind the trial is to help create a new culture of reuse on-the-go and explore how customers respond to dropping their cups back off to be washed and used again.
Hubbub and Starbucks will share the results from the trial and will announce further campaigns in the UK in the months ahead.
