The ‘Bring It Back Fund’ will support pilot projects that help shift people’s habits. Successful applicants could promote behaviour change, undertake new research, expand an existing approach or try something completely new including tech fixes. Up to five projects will each receive grants of between £150,000-£300,000 for a year. Applications open on 11th May 2022 and close on 24th June 2022.
Development of the ‘Bring It Back Fund’ has been informed by Starbucks and Hubbub’s ongoing initiatives to drive the uptake of reuse, including the ‘Cup, Cup and Away’ campaign at Gatwick Airport and ‘Grab Your Cup’ in Manchester.
Understanding barriers and appetite to help shift people’s habits
Further insight comes from new polling commissioned by Hubbub. This identified some of the most common barriers to reuse including misconceptions that it might not be clean or hygienic (38%), might cost more (31%) or is inconvenient to carry or store (28%). Separate polling we conducted in 2019 showed over a third of people (36%) don’t use a reusable simply because they forget their cup.
Alongside these ongoing challenges, reuse and refill has been set back by the pandemic, with 1 in 5 people worried about catching Covid from reusable cups and cutlery. This is despite reassurance from scientists across the world that reusable containers do not increase the chance of virus transmission and are safe to use.
The polling revealed that there is a clear appetite from the public to cut down on single-use plastics. 41% of respondents stated that they are now more worried about how much single-use plastic is used than they were pre-Covid. 67% say they want to reduce the amount of single-use packaging they use when buying food and drink products whilst 64% said they’d be open to borrow a reusable cup for a takeaway drink from a café or bar and then return it. The latter is something that Starbucks is trialling in London, Paris and Geneva this year.
The ‘Bring it Back Fund’ is the fifth significant sustainability grant fund launched by Hubbub. Together these funds have made £4.6 million available, investing in a range of ground-breaking approaches seeking to boost the circular economy, tackle plastic pollution, reduce e-waste and promote recycling.
