The new hot cup is apparently certified home compostable and widely recyclable. Starbucks says the cup and lid can be recycled in recycling bins or composted at home, leaving no harmful residue to people or nature behind.

The redesigned cup was reportedly created using traceable wood fibre from Northern European forests and a mineral-based coating developed in Brescia, Italy. The cup was designed and constructed at Transcend Packaging’s factory located in Caerphilly, Wales.

Already available in Spain and Hungary, the hot cup and lid solution will gradually be rolled out in stores across select European markets this year, beginning in countries including Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria this month and due to come to the UK and Ireland later this year.

In February, Starbucks re-introduced its practice of allowing baristas to handwrite messages on to-go coffee cups, serving ‘for here’ beverages in ceramic cups, and offering free refills in its cafés. The move is hoped to entice consumers back to stores, improve their on-site experience and build a rapport with the server.

Later that month, The Coca-Cola Company, Starbucks, PepsiCo and others served reusable takeaway cups as the default in a Closed Loop Partners trial and apparently achieved a 51% return rate, suggesting environmental benefits for mandatory reuse. Over 220,000 cups were reportedly returned across the twelve-week programme, with ‘minimal’ contamination found in the return bins.