Costa - stop throwing good food away!

During a visit to my local Costa Coffee outlet in January, I noticed that a lot of sandwiches and cakes remained unsold just 15 minutes before closing time. Thinking of the sustainability policy embraced by Pret A Manger, which sees them donating around 3,000,000 food items to homeless charities every year, I asked the staff if there was an equivalent policy in place at Costa.

I was shocked to discover that company policy dictates that ALL leftover food must be bagged up and sent to landfill - no donating it to charity, no selling the food at a discount at the end of the day, no taking home of unsold food by staff.

At a time when so many are going hungry and having to rely on foodbanks to feed their families, this policy is completely unacceptable.

I have contacted the company on several occasions since that visit, repeatedly asking for someone to send me a copy of this policy in writing so that I might better understand their reasons for having it in place. Emails and Costa Facebook page posts went unanswered so I phoned and spoke to a staff member, who promised that they would email the policy to me. After 2 more weeks, still no email, so I called again (I'm nothing if not determined!) and received the same answer. And still nothing. So I think this petition is the next logical step. I hope enough other people agree that Costa are being needlessly wasteful and that public pressure will persaude the company that a major rethink of it's sustainability policy is in order.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please can you share it with your friends?

All the best, Mandy