A groundbreaking coffee cup recycling initiative is proving simple incentives can inspire significant environmental change.
The program – started in January 2024 in Aarhus, Denmark – is being hailed as a model for tackling one global plastic waste crisis: coffee cups.
Since its launch the three-year pilot program has already collected over 735,000 reusable cups in just the first year in the relatively small Danish city, reducing plastic waste by 14 tonnes and cutting carbon emissions.
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At the core of the program is a straightforward deposit-return system. Customers pay 5 Danish kroner ($0.70) when purchasing a reusable cup and receive a digital refund upon returning the cup to one of 25 collection machines in the city.
In just one year, the system has achieved an impressive 87% return rate.
Geir Saether, head of TOMRA Reuse, the company behind the system, said: “Circular shifts do not happen by accident – they need to be supported by interventions that shape the behavior of both businesses and consumers.
“It is as simple as providing incentives for choosing sustainable options and penalizing wasteful practices.”
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The program initially faced challenges with low return rates, but targeted awareness campaigns and high-profile events, like Aarhus’ week-long festival, where only reusable cups were available, helped drive adoption. Now, reusable cup returns rival Denmark’s well-established bottle deposit system.
Simon Smedegaard Rossau, project manager for circular packaging at Aarhus Municipality, added: “We now see shifts in behavior. People are returning cups in bulk, just like they do with cans and bottles.”
Aarhus’ success provides a potential blueprint for other cities worldwide. With single-use plastic production projected to triple by 2060, scaling reusable systems has become a global imperative.
European legislation is also driving this change, with the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) setting ambitious targets to reduce packaging waste by 2030.
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Building on its success, Aarhus plans to expand the program to include food packaging, with a goal of collecting 1.5 million reusable items by 2025.
Policymakers and businesses are being urged to support such initiatives through taxes on single-use packaging and investments in reusable infrastructure.
Saether added: “To level the playing field [to single-use plastic], we must factor in external costs, like pollution, through measures such as taxes.”
Experts say the pilot project shows the power of combining consumer incentives, convenience, and supportive government policies to drive meaningful environmental change.
As cities worldwide look for solutions to the mounting plastic waste crisis, Aarhus’ success is being held up as a blueprint for reuse systems to create a cleaner, more sustainable future.