Tim Hortons says it won’t accept reusable cups in its restaurants for now amid worries about the novel coronavirus that has seen nearly 100,000 cases around the world so far.
The coffee brand has close to 4,000 restaurants across Canada. In a statement Friday, Tim Hortons said it decided to adopt the “temporary approach” after listening to customer and franchise owner feedback.
“Though health officials have not recommended any changes to current procedures, after listening to our restaurant owners and comments from our guests, we are going to pause on accepting reusable cups at this time,” the statement said.
The company is also “sourcing extra gloves, hand sanitization gel and other essential cleaning materials should we need them in the coming months.”
The coffee giant’s move comes on the heels of a similar announcement by Starbucks on Wednesday.
Tim Hortons is also pushing back the scheduled distribution of nearly two million reusable cups, which the company had planned to give away from March 10 onwards as part of an effort to make their annual Roll up the Rim campaign more sustainable.
“For any guest that brings a reusable cup to our restaurants and purchases a hot beverage scanning their Tims Rewards card or app, we will honour the three digital rolls described in our campaign, however, the guest will be provided their beverage in a recyclable paper cup,” the statement said.
Canada has seen 45 confirmed cases of the virus as of March 5.