Discounter Aldi Süd has announced it will allow customers to use reusable coffee cups at all of its in-store coffee machines in Germany.
The retailer will offer reusable and environmentally-friendly bamboo coffee cups on sale from 1 February, to allow customers to actively curb plastic waste.
Coffee is Germany’s most popular beverage and Germans drink an average of 162 litres of it every year, according to the German coffee association. However, every hour, 320,000 disposable coffee cups get thrown away in the country.
Reusable Bonus
Aldi Süd will offer people using reusable cups up to 20% more of their hot beverage, including coffee, hot chocolate and teas. Espresso-based drinks are excluded from the offer.
“Right from the beginning, we have believed in a sustainable reusable solution in the development of our coffee machines and are now pleased to be able to present the result in around 400 stores," says Michael Körnig, managing director of the Aldi Süd subsidiary NewCoffee.
Aldi Süd’s coffee machines source their coffee from Fairtrade-certified farms, according to the retailer.
The discounter is a member of the Global Coffee Platform, which works for sustainability and transparency in the coffee industry and for the welfare of coffee farmers.
Since the beginning of 2016, the retailer has also been supporting a Fairtrade project to improve local farmers in Honduras.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
