Cllr Jamie Pritchard, Deputy Leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, and Ed Edmunds, Chief Executive, recently joined the Secretary of State for Wales, Jo Stevens, on a visit to local business Transcend Packaging in Ystrad Mynach to see progress on its latest sustainable packaging innovation.
The award-winning company is developing a new hot cup and lid for a major coffee retailer. Following extensive research, development and manufacturing collaboration between the two companies, the new design, a fresh iteration of the iconic white coffee cup, launched across Europe during the summer and is due to arrive in the UK soon. Development of the product received support from Cardiff Capital Region’s Innovation Investment Capital in 2024.
Traditional takeaway coffee cups often feature a plastic lining, which makes them difficult to recycle as the lining must be separated from the paper. Transcend’s new design addresses this challenge by replacing the plastic lining with a mineral-based coating. The company has also replaced single-use plastic lids with fibre-based alternatives, coated with the same sustainable material.
The result is a widely recyclable and home-compostable alternative for customers who don’t have a reusable cup. Manufacturing has already begun at Transcend with shipments of the new product already reaching markets across Europe.
It has been a successful year for Transcend, which has received national recognition for its innovative work, including a Gold Award for Cup Innovation at the UK Environmental Packaging Awards and the Manufacturing Export Award at the Made in Wales Awards.
Cllr Jamie Pritchard, Deputy Leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, commented “This Council will continue to work with businesses and the Cardiff Capital Region to ensure companies such as Transcend Packaging, in the heart of the county borough, are able to grow. The provision of high-quality, high-tech jobs with good levels of pay helps to ensure Caerphilly County Borough is really on the map in terms of low carbon research, development, and manufacturing.”
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