Pret A Manger Introduces Branded, Reusable Water Bottles

A new range of branded reusable water bottles has been launched by sandwich chain Pret a Manger, which is the latest part of their strategy to cut any unnecessary waste across its business. 

Pret is working hard to encourage their customers to use reusable cups for takeaway hot drinks and customers that bring in a reusable cup will receive a discount of 50 pence! Now they are turning their attention to their cold drinks, and they want customers to think before buying a plastic water bottle. Which is why they teamed up with bottle brand Chilly’s, in order to make reusable bottles that are available within selected stores. 

Customers can buy these bottles and can refill them at filtered water stations located inside the chain’s stores. The insulated bottles, which cost £20, keep drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours.

Pret CEO Clive Schlee, commented on their plans to cut their waste, he said “Plastic bottles are a serious issue, and this issue is only made more prevalent once you hear of the shocking statistics about the millions of tonnes of plastic being dumped in our oceans. I am delighted to be partnering with Chilly’s and we have now created a range of reusable bottles and I hope that our customers love our designs!”

At the moment, Pret is also trialling the UK’s first plastic bottle deposit return scheme, and that has been rolled out into three of their Brighton stores. Customers have to pay an extra 10 pence if they want to purchase a plastic water bottle, however they can claim this back when they return their Pret-branded bottles to one of their stores. 

The scheme will be trialled for two months, and if it’s successful, Clive has said that it may be implemented into Pret stores nationwide. 

Just under 50% of the millions of plastic bottles that are used in the UK each year are actually recycled, which is pretty poor when you look at how well the countries with DRS schemes - such as Denmark and Germany - are doing. They are managing to recycle 90% of their plastic bottles!

Pret’s decision to create reusable bottles has been in reaction to the government’s idea to consult and launch a national deposit return scheme for plastic bottles, glass bottles and drinks cans, as the government wants to eradicate unnecessary plastic waste by 2042.