Air New Zealand has begun trialling a new innovation in its battle against waste - an edible coffee cup.
The cups are baked from a biscuit base, are vanilla-flavoured, leak-proof and can double as a dessert bowl.
Nike Chave, of the airline, said while the company - which serves more than eight million cups of coffee a year - has been using compostable, plant-based cups for some time, it was aiming to "remove these totally from landfills".
"We've been working in partnership with innovative New Zealand company twiice to explore the future of edible coffee cups," Ms Chave said in a statement released by the airline.
"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."
Ms Chave says the airline would continue to trial the edible coffee cups and would work with twiice and others to explore options that could make it a viable long-term product for the airline.
Twiice says the cup will not crumble like a biscuit, and will "stay crisp at least as long as it takes to drink your coffee, and longer".
"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," twiice founder Jamie Cashmore said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here