We are committed to sending zero waste to landfill by 2012.

The Pret Charity Run operates a fleet of LPG vans that deliver over 12,000 fresh meals to numerous shelters for the homeless in London every week. Many charities across the UK collect directly from our shops at the end of each day too. In total, Pret donates over 1.7 million products to charities for the homeless across the UK every year with the added benefit of ensuring our fresh natural food goes to the homeless at the end of the day and not to landfill. In fact, this prevents up to 250 tonnes of food from ending up in landfill.

Tragically a few of our shops have no regular charities willing to collect our fresh, natural food at the end of each day. If you run a charity in need of good food, let us know we may be able to help. Call Edward Metcalfe on 020 7932 3339.

Our goal is to avoid landfill at all costs; we know it's bad for the environment, that they are filling up fast and that they are becoming increasingly expensive. Getting our recycling scheme bedded in is essential. We've rolled out back of house recycling and have recently launched the collection of organic waste generated in our kitchens for composting.

Many customers want a bag and a handful of napkins each visit, but if you don't, then please tell us (We won't mind, in fact, we'll thank you). In 2009, we reduced the number of plastic bags we used by 28% simply by asking our customers if they actually wanted one.

We are currently reviewing our entire bag range to establish if further reductions in materials can be made. For now, if you take a recycled bag, why not reuse it? You'll probably get at least a month or two's use from each one (before recycling it again, of course).

We are committed to using packaging that is as environmentally friendly as possible. Our ultimate aim is to ensure all Pret packaging is made from recycled materials and can easily be recycled. We're nearly there. Currently, 96% of our packaging can be recycled. We're working very hard on the last 4%.

Boxes: Our sandwich ‘bio-box’ is fully recyclable and the cheesecake boxes were some of the first in the world.

We were the first retailer to move from plastic sandwich boxes to cardboard in the 1990s.

Today, our sandwich boxes (all shapes and sizes) are made with virgin board from sustainable forests with a water-based coating. This means that the box is 100% recyclable. Most other card boxes on the market are coated in polyethylene.

Pret Pots: We removed our range of biodegradable PLA (cornstarch) Pret Pots in 2007. Biodegradable and compostable packaging is no doubt the best way forward but until the UK provides adequate composting sites and collection services, PLA packaging is an impractical solution. Most PLA packaging ends up in landfill never properly degrading and if PLA gets in the plastic recycling stream it acts as a contaminant. For now, we'll keep using our recyclable plastic pots.

Little changes make all the difference

We work with all our suppliers to reduce ingredient packaging wherever we can and over the last few years have reduced the materials used across a number of packaging items. Just two examples: redesigning our baguette bags reduced the material used by 8.27 tonnes a year and changing our Pure Pret bottles in 2010 saved 28,000kg of plastic. So far in 2010 we have made a 12% reduction in the amount of plastic used in our Pret Still range.

Our head office recycling scheme is very successful, and now the vast majority of Pret shops have recycling facilities, as well as being able to compost their organic waste.

After several prototypes, numerous set backs and no end of testing, we have finally launched recycling facilities in most Pret shops. It's been far from easy but, fingers crossed, we think we've cracked it. We've introduced 'co-mingled' recycling. This means all of our product packaging can be placed in a single bin ready for sorting later at the recycling plant. We don't need separate bins for cans, paper and plastic. This keeps it simple and ensures we can recycle as much as possible.

Since we launched recycling in 2008 we have steadily been improving our diversion rates (recycling and composting) month-on-month. We are currently running at approximately 20% of overall waste being diverted from landfill. This is still a relatively small amount but with your help we can improve our rates. Please play your part and follow the instructions on the recycling stations in our shops.

Believe it or not, 80% of Pret food (and packaging) is taken away by our customers. We want to encourage recycling outside of Pret and welcome the office-based recycling scheme operated by Closed Loop London (www.closedlooplondon.co.uk) which encourages customers to recycle in their workplace (where many eat their lunch).

For now, if you 'take away' from Pret, and depending on facilities in your area, you can easily recycle the majority of Pret packaging yourself. Here are a few points to help you...

Keep the packaging as clean as possible.
Rinse the packaging if need be.

If your waste collector does not operate co-mingled recycling separate the materials as directed.

The website www.recycle-more.co.uk might help