Deliveroo and GAIL’s bakery have joined forces with Sheffield Hallam University for Deliveroo’s Sustainable Packaging Challenge, where students will attempt to develop a sustainable cup for transporting hot drinks between a GAIL’s bakery and its customers.
The companies state the cup must ensure the drink remains hot without spilling, arrives in the best possible condition and considers sustainability as ‘main driver’ for innovation. Students will have just under 5 months to produce a prototype for a cup that meets these objectives, receiving guidance and support from experts at Deliveroo and GAIL’s.
The winning design will be selected at a final exhibition, with winners receiving a £1,500 cash prize and the chance to discuss the potential for their design to go into production with GAIL’s.
Deliveroo says it has seen rapid growth in its Breakfast and Coffee category, with it becoming one of the top 10 fastest growing categories on the app. The business is keen to find a solution to ensure drink orders arrive in packaging that is ‘ethically sourced, recyclable or made from renewable resources and/or is compostable’.
The business also worked with the University in 2024, challenging students to develop sustainable packaging for food delivery that prevented spillages and maintained food at the correct temperature. Deliveroo says the winning design is now being produced in collaboration with BioPak and will be available for all partners to buy through its sustainable packaging webstore in 2025.
In related news, earlier this year The Coca-Cola Company, Starbucks, PepsiCo and others served reusable takeaway cups as the default in a Closed Loop Partners trial and reported a 51% return rate, suggesting environmental benefits for mandatory reuse. Of the unreturned cups, 24,000 were said to be recovered from recycling streams by a local recycler, while ‘many’ respondents in a focus group admitted to keeping cups to be reused at home.
Berry Global’s range of reusable plastic cups was selected for the collaborative Borrow Cup initiative which was launched in Glasgow, UK, at the end of January. Developed by environmental charity Hubbub and Glasgow-based reusable packaging systems provider Reposit, Borrow Cup allows consumers to borrow a returnable cup from any participating location, involving over 40 businesses including local cafés and major brands such as Costa Coffee, Caffè Nero and Burger King UK.
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