Green Gown Awards 2018 - King’s College London - Finalist

Over the last few years, King’s Food have taken steps towards reducing the use of disposables at King’s College London’s catering outlets. Their promotion of branded reusable coffee cups, as well as discounts for using reusables, meant that the proportion of hot drinks sold in reusable cups has doubled from 3% to 6% in the last two years. Sales of the reusable cups, which are sold at cost price and come with a free hot drink, have increased year-on-year.

In 2017, King’s Food also introduced biodegradable reusable water bottles. Like the Keep Cups, these are sold at cost price to make them attractive options for students and staff. To make refilling the bottles easy, the locations of water fountains were added to the university’s free app which is available on IOS and Android. This makes it possible for students, staff and visitors to quickly find their nearest water fountain.

Top 3 learnings:

• Regular and consistent communication is key – repeat the message.
• Alternatives to disposables have to be attractive, e.g. reusable cups have to look great too.
• Not everyone will use reusables, therefore a ‘Plan B’ – coffee cup recycling – is useful.