Each year millions of cups of coffee, tea and hot drinks are consumed out of disposable cups from vending machines at work.
Until now, almost all paper cups had an integral oil-based plastic lining in order to prevent leakage. Manufacturing these liners requires significant fossil fuels, and results in a product that is difficult to recycle.
In an era where the need for businesses to reduce their environmental impact is a legislative and moral requirement, these issues are concerning for customers and staff worldwide.
FLAVIA, part of Mars Drinks, has proactively pioneered a smart, simple, and compostable solution – the N-viro cup – for use with their Flavia machines.
The N-viro cup is the first compostable cup to be manufactured in the UK: it uses a bio-plastic lining derived from corn instead of the standard oil-based lining.
The result is a commercially compostable paper-board cup which is harvested from sustainable sources under the management of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
After use, the N-viro cups are collected via the Save-a-Cup scheme, the first of its kind developed with Mars Drinks, and taken to industrial composting facilities where they break down into compost for later use on farms and horticulture facilities across the UK.
The Flavia N-viro cup is just one part of the Mars Drinks’ ‘Thirsty for Change’ sustainability programme, which was launched this May to help businesses achieve environmental targets and become more sustainable.
Thirsty for Change helps Mars Drinks customers to reduce waste and energy use, and helps customers to help others through offering a range of drinks from sustainable certified sources.
“We are committed to helping our clients make their operations more sustainable – this has been at the heart of developing our Thirsty for Change programme,” said Daniel Vennard, Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Director.
“The N-viro cup is an important initiative which can help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. The scheme, which we have pioneered with the not-for-profit company ‘Save-a-Cup’, allows the used N-viro cups to be collected and sent to specially identified composting facilities.
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“We have committed 20% of our research and development budget to developing innovative changes to Mars products – which will make a positive difference to our business and our customers’ sustainability targets.”
Flavia is celebrating the launch of the N-viro cup by offering a free case of their sustainable Brighter Tomorrow at Origin Malawi Garden tea to the first 150 companies ordering their eco-friendly cup.
