Pret A Manger has teamed up with the clever people at Chilly’s to create a range of reusable bottles to help customers avoid single-use plastic bottles.
The reusable bottles first trialled in Brighton, Manchester and Veggie Pret shops, and will be introduced to 370 shops across the UK this week. The roll-out follows feedback from customers asking Pret to bring them to shops far and wide, from Nottingham and Norwich to Cambridge and Cardiff. The bottles feature three exclusive Pret designs: the apple robot, the cucumber snake and the watermelon lollies, and they keep drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours.
Pret has been actively encouraging customers to reduce the number of plastic bottles they use. Pret CEO Clive Schlee blogged about it last year when he asked, “What if Pret stopped selling plastic water bottles?”. James and Tim, the founders of Chilly’s, saw Clive’s blog post and emailed him their own question in return – what if Pret sold reusable bottles? It was a no-brainer; Clive immediately said yes.
Filtered water stations in shops
Customers and passers-by are able to refill any reusable bottles for free using Pret’s filtered water stations that are now available in over 70 shops. To see a full list of where they are available, please visit http://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/pret-x-chillys.
Bottle deposit return scheme trials
To help increase recycling rates, the UK’s first plastic bottle deposit return scheme trial launched in Pret’s Brighton shops in April. This has seen the company recycle any plastic bottles taken into shops in Brighton, and return a 10p deposit when Pret-branded plastic bottles are handed in.
Countries such as Denmark and Germany have seen rates of recycling grow to more than 90% after introducing deposit return schemes. If trials are successful, Pret will introduce the scheme to more locations later this year.