Tim Hortons will finally stop double-cupping its coffee to reduce waste
After decades of coddling tender hands by serving up coffee in not one, but two stacked, disposable cups, Tim Hortons says it will stop the practice of "double-cupping" to reduce waste.
Given how notoriously difficult it is to recycle their paper-and-polystyrene cups, some would say it's about darned time.
The iconic Canadian cafe chain announced on Wednesday that it will be ditching the double-cup (not to be confused with the iconic "double double" coffee containing two creams and two sugars) as of Nov. 4, 2020.
Starting exactly two weeks from this morning, the coffee giant will no longer comply with requests for two cups. Instead, it will offer its guests "a recyclable cardboard sleeve for their hot drinks."
"We understand that millions of our guests request 'double-cupping' at our restaurants because our coffee is always 20 minutes fresh and piping hot," said Tim Hortons' Chief Marketing Officer Hope Bagozzi when announcing the news today.
"Most wouldn't know the incredible benefit we can offer to Canada's environment if they accept a hot coffee sleeve instead of a second cup."
The elimination of double-cupping is expected to divert more than 200 million Tim Hortons coffee cups per year from landfills — or as the company puts it, "the equivalent of wrapping half the circumference of the planet with Tim Hortons cups."
"This is just one part of a larger sustainability focus at Tim Hortons, especially related to our beverage cups," says Bagozzi. "We are making our lids more recyclable; making our coffee cups more recyclable; we're testing a compostable coffee cup; and have launched a strawless option for our cold beverages as well."
Only time and consumer habits will tell if these measures work to push the company down from the top of Greenpeace's top plastic polluters in Canada list.
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