What if coffee on the go could be served in a reusable cup that can be returned to the reverse vending machine in any supermarket? From this simple idea, Göttingen schoolchildren developed a marketable product. The „FairCup“ is now available throughout Germany.
Disposable coffee cup to take away - they are often made of cardboard and a Barrier layer made of plastic - are only used for around 15 minutes. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, 2.8 billion of these products, which are difficult to recycle, are sold in Germany every year and then carelessly thrown away.
Alternatives for coffee on the go include Reusable cup on. In Germany, there are numerous offers, mostly limited to individual municipalities or regions. In Freiburg in Baden, for example, fans of mobile hot beverage enjoyment use the „FreiburgCup“. There are shops all over the city where it can be returned.
Pupils take Freiburg idea further
The Freiburg Cup was organised for graduates of the 2017 Abitur class from vocational schools II from Göttingen as the reason for the question: „What if reusable coffee cups could be returned everywhere, no matter where they were bought?“ The pupils thought of a nationwide infrastructure of Reverse vending machines, as it is for PET bottles already exists.
Together with her teacher Sibylle Meyer the young people launched a project in the area of „project management“. The result of this is the „FairCup“, a stable Plastic cup made of high-quality material suitable for medical products and foodstuffs Polypropylene with ten per cent recycled content and a lid made from the same material. It is available in four different sizes from 0.2 to 0.5 litres and nine different colours. It is manufactured in the region in Nörten-Hardenberg and in Seebach in Thuringia. Local shops quickly found themselves offering the FairCup.
The idea was so successful that Sibylle Meyer eventually FairCup UG of which she is now Managing Director. The company is responsible for the distribution of the FairCup and the operation of the Take-back infrastructure. To achieve this, Sibylle Meyer relies on a team of up to six employees. „We have partners in every city who work with us and take on functions,“ she explains. In this way, the special reusable cup is now available throughout Germany. Often there are Bakery chains, which hand out the cups for a deposit and also take them back and clean them. In Hamelin, for example, where the FairCup was launched at the beginning of May, the deposit for the cup costs one euro and 50 cents for the lid.
In the beginning, there was a central scullery
FairCup worked particularly hard on the distribution structure. Because in the Issuing points there must always be enough cups in stock. It was also necessary to ensure that used cups were cleaned and defective products were sorted out. Initially, the cups were collected by a courier service and taken to a central scullery. The shops now wash the cups themselves on site, as this is much cheaper and more environmentally friendly. FairCup outlets use the „FairCup Manager“ new cups or organise the return of used products.
Since June, the FairCup has even been awarded the Blue Angel certified. This means that its users can really be sure that it is more climate-friendly than disposable paper cups. Because reusable cups are much more expensive to produce, they have to be used more often. The rules for awarding the Blue Angel require that reusable cups 500 rinse cycles have to survive.
Free vending machines requested for Hildesheim
If Sibylle Meyer has her way, FairCup use will be even easier in future. Customers should be able to buy the cups in the supermarket as normal. Deposit machines can return them. Trials are currently underway in three supermarkets in Hildesheim. The city of Hildesheim has also applied for the installation of free vending machines. The machines Tomra Systems FairCup would operate the machines equipped with the FairCup Manager software itself. „The machines report their fill levels to our database, which means we can also coordinate emptying via the app,“ says Sibylle Meyer, explaining the procedure.
The reusable cup entrepreneur emphasises in an interview with the packaging journal, that the FairCup is multifunctional packaging and much more than just a coffee cup: „You pick up your meat salad or Parmesan for your spaghetti in the FairCup and hand it in with your crates of beer or water and bottles at the reverse vending machine. You can then offset your deposit against your purchase or donate it. The supermarkets clean the cups and reuse them as packaging.“
[infotext icon]All information about the FairCup can be found at
http://www.fair-cup.de/
