The Bring It Back Fund is supported by Starbucks’ 5p cup surcharge for disposable cup use across its UK stores | Photo credit: Hubbub

Starbucks UK has revealed the six winners of its £1.4m ($1.6m) Bring It Back Fund, which aims to promote new solutions for sustainable packaging and re-usable cup use across the food and beverage industry. 
 

Projects awarded funding include Keep Scotland Beautiful’s reusable cup deposit scheme across the Scottish Highlands, Again’s doorstep at-home collection of reusable packaging in London, and Reath Technology’s footprint calculator designed optimise commercial re-use and recycle schemes.
 

Green Street, the Peterborough Environment City Trust and junee were also been awarded funding. 

Starbucks and its project partner, UK environmental campaign charity Hubbub, increased the total funding available from £1m to £1.4m as a result of the ‘high quality and breadth of applications’ received since the fund was launched in May 2022. 

In each pilot project, consumers are encouraged to move away from single-use packaging through behaviour-changing incentives, research projects, new technology, the expansion of existing successful reuse systems, or the development of entirely new service models. 

“We’ve introduced an array of different reusable activations over the years to test and trial new ways to encourage reuse. Our latest work with Hubbub, the Bring It Back Fund, builds on our reusables work, aiming to find new ways to inspire people and our customers to choose to reuse. It is important for us as a company that we continue to drive industry-wide innovation, as we work to increase reusability and inspire greater reusables uptake in local communities across the UK. This forms part of our long-term goal to reduce waste and become a resource-positive company,” said Alex Rayner, General Manager, Starbucks UK. 

The fund is supported by Starbucks’ 5p cup surcharge for disposable cup use across its UK stores. 

In March 2022 Seattle-based Starbucks outlined new initiatives to help reduce waste and carbon emissions across its global portfolio of stores, including a ‘shift away’ from single-use plastics and piloting reusable cup programs in six markets around the world.