20
votes
Denmark's second-largest city is trialling a first-of-its-kind deposit scheme to tackle single-use coffee cups
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Danish city tackles single-use coffee cup trash with unique scheme
- Published
- Jan 25 2024
- Word count
- 518 words
Seems like a good idea, and it definitely solves the problem of "what if I forget my cup at home". Also, the disposable lids (at least it seems like they are disposed of), although not ecologically ideal, make it a bit more hygienic.
I'd really like to see the results of this trial, as cup longevity, economic viability and return rates are absolutely going to make or break this. Especially cup longevity, since the cups use less plastic and don't seem as sturdy as regular reusable cups. Although the lessened amount of plastic should affect energetic use break-even, regular cups come in at about 17 uses, so a similar figure for a cup's "usable lifetime" needs to be achieved.
I don’t know if this translates well but I attend a music festival ever year where they went from no deposit to about the same amount in this article and the results were astounding. Went from ankle deep in plastic cups one year to literally no cups on the ground the next. It was like magic. It also helped that you could hand in the cups at the same place you bought more beverages and they would just offset the amount. Convenience is key here.