The Finnish packaging company has launched the trial at 19 Pressbyrån stores across Sweden ahead of a new single-use packaging law which comes into force in January 2024
.jpg.aspx?lang=en-GB&width=700&height=420)
A Pressbyrån convenience store in Sweden | Photo credit: Stora Enso
Finnish green packaging company Stora Enso has launched a new reusable coffee cup-share project with Swedish convenience store chain Pressbyrån and sustainability start-up &Repeat.
Stora Enso is offering customers the choice of a reusable cup when buying a hot beverage from 19 Pressbyrån stores until the end of June 2023. Customers register the reusable cup with an app before returning the cup in-store.
The collected cups are cleaned and offered to customers again.
The project is in preparation for a new single-use packaging law, which will come into force across Sweden in January 2024, making it mandatory for any restaurant, café or convenience store selling more than 150 units of disposable packaging per day to offer a re-usable alternative.
The pilot project will assess the requirements of the cup-share system and how it could be rolled out across more outlets. Pressbyrån currently operates 330 stores across Sweden.
“We are doing this to learn. How hard is it to get a circular system in place in an open environment? Will customers be excited or not? Which are the big challenges, and will this be the most sustainable way of handling take-away food? We are eager to find out,” said Nathalie Kalivas Jönsson, Business Development Manager, Circular Products & Services, Stora Enso.
In September 2022, Stora Enso partnered with fellow Finnish packaging company Huhtamäki to launch The Cup Collective, a paper cup recycling initiative which will initially be introduced across Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Stora Enso achieved sales of €11.7bn ($12.7bn) in 2022.