Air New Zealand trials edible coffee cups to reduce waste

Air New Zealand has begun trialling vanilla-flavoured edible coffee cups for customers in the air in a bid to reduce waste.

Customers both on flights and on the ground will be served their coffee in the leakproof cups that double as an edible dessert bowl.

The airline currently serves more than eight million cups of coffee each year, and so far the cups have been a hit with the customers, according to Air New Zealand customer experience manager Niki Chave.

"We've been working in partnership with innovative New Zealand company 'twiice' to explore the future of edible coffee cups, which are vanilla flavoured and leakproof.

"The cups have been a big hit with the customers who have used these and we've also been using the cups as dessert bowls."

Air New Zealand recently switched to plant-based cups that are compostable but the company one day wants to completely remove all cups from landfills.

'Twiice' co-founder Jamie Cashmore says the edible cups could play a big role in demonstrating to the world that new and innovative ways of packaging are achievable.

"It's terrific that Air New Zealand has partnered with us to showcase to its customers and the world that a little bit of Kiwi ingenuity and innovation could have a really positive impact on the environment while at the same time delivering a really cool and tasty customer experience."

Switching to plant-based cups is expected to prevent around 15 million cups from going to landfill annually.

The airline will continue to trial the edible cups while it works on making them a viable long-term product for the airline to serve to its customers.