Nearly half of the United States population, 150 million other American adults, are coffee drinkers.
Now think about the cups. Unless you’re drinking your brew at home, you’re likely picking up your java in a paper cup to go.
And that’s the problem across the world: nearly 16 billion paper to-go cups are used every year, which leads to 6.5 million trees being cut down and 4 billion gallons of water being wasted. The inside of most paper to-go cups is also coated in a thin layer of plastic, making them unrecyclable.
With these issues in mind, many places, ranging from small towns in England to New Zealand’s most populated city, have introduced a new solution in recent years: deposit-based reusable cup systems. These systems allow consumers to pay a small deposit, use a reusable to-go cup, made of 100% recyclable polypropylene, and then return it for their cash back after they’ve had their morning brew. One of the largest such schemes in Europe is Germany’s RECUP, which is offered through more than 8,000 partner locations across the country.
Florian Pachaly and Fabian Eckert, the organization’s co-founders, started testing their... Read more
