Costa enlists Ogilvy to study consumer behaviour for ‘solutions’ to meet recycling pledge
Costa Coffee has embraced Ogilvy UK’s behavioural science unit to help it, and customers, recycle more disposable coffee cups. The findings will be piloted by Heathrow Airport before they are scaled up globally.
Costa Coffee makes recycling pledge
The Coca-Cola-owned brand has committed to recycling the same volume of cups it puts into the market in a bid to offset its environmental impact – in line with its owner’s stance on recycling.
Ogilvy’s research found that more than 7m disposable coffee cups are used each day in the UK, this adds to 2.5bn a year.
Ogilvy, Costa, Heathrow Airport and waste management company, Grundon, are researching the behavioural barriers to recycling, and the practical business steps It could take to encourage more. Together they have pledged to recycle 100m takeaway cups in the next year, and 500m cups by 2020.
Oliver Rosevear, head of environment at Costa, said: “We’ve set ourselves an ambitious target to recycle 100m takeaway cups in the next year. To help us recover these cups we need to provide consumers with convenient solutions to cup recycling. We are excited to work with Ogilvy to better understand what effective solutions look like for consumers. Partnering with Heathrow Airport and Grundon offers an amazing opportunity to test what works in a closed environment and to share our findings with the wider industry, which we believe will help increase recycling rates.”
Sam Tatam, behavioural strategy director at Ogilvy UK, added: “We’re absolutely delighted to work with Costa Coffee, Heathrow and Grundon to apply behavioural science to help increase recycling rates. The team are excited to be developing a range of innovative behavioural interventions for trial within the airport, with the potential for these to drive significant impacts across the country in the coming months.”
