VK must learn from the world’s first city -wide reusable cup schedule

In Aarhus, Denmark has a successful schedule that collects cups and washes more than a million for a small deposit so far from being

Every year, 50 billion drinks are used for one -time use and then shared immediately all over the world, waving parks, beaches and ending up in rivers and seas.

It is easy to forget what happens to them after they have been thrown away. But their slow decomposition – especially those with plastic carrys – can lead to the release of microplastics in the environment that can be disastrous for wildlife and also pollute our precious water systems.

Now a Danish city thinks that has the answer to solving the crisis. In Aarhus, the world’s first city -wide reusable drinking schedule saved thousands of ending up at the landfill – stopping that contaminating substances do not lie in the ground and air.

Instead of throwing them away, the locals use one of the 27 deposit machines in the second largest city in Denmark to bring them back to be washed and returned to retailers.

It is a simple system and the deposit – around 80 pence – is returned directly to your bank account by placing your credit card on the machine. Every time a hot drink cup – with a plastic lid – or larger cups for cold drinks and beers are returned to one of the machines that are distributed throughout the country, they are cleaned in a specialist Depo and then redistributed to retailers.

Read more: Plastic pollution crisis that is being tackled by a unique schedule in a part of the UK

“Our working vision is a city without waste bins,” says Simon Smedegaard Rossau, project manager of Aarhus for circular systems. “Time is good, nobody wants the earth to be polluted by microplastic,” he added.

So far, more than 1.25 million cups have been sent back since the launch 18 months ago – the equivalent of 10,000 stuffed containers or 16 tonnes of waste. It has been so successful – with an efficiency of 88% – that other cities would like to follow the model, with Lisbon introducing a reusable beer cup drink scheme earlier this year.

The pilot program in Aarhus wanted to collect 500,000 cups in the first year, a target that was much surpassed because cup was sent back 735,000 times, which saved 14 tons of plastic by combustion and CO2 emissions.

For 2025, the ultimate goal is to collect 1.5 million cups, with an additional 1.5 million planned for the third year. In the pipeline, the municipality of Aarhus wants to expand to other forms of food packaging, including collection meals.

Simon explained that one of the most important factors behind the project was that almost half of the total waste produced in Aarhus consists of alcohol and food packaging. A turning point came with the Aarhus Festuge Festival, a huge street festival in the city, where companies only used reusable cups. 100,000 cups were restored during the weekend event, enough to fill 1200 waste containers.

Simon added: “We have to make an adult choice to say that here and there we have to take a little space to minimize the growing waste crisis that we see in all cities. If you are a city officer, you have to ask yourself:” Where are we going to place all this waste that our streets go over? “

Jenni Hume, the Global Networks Director of Reloop, an organization that cooperates with the British government to freely accelerate a society without plastic waste, said: “Systems designed to keep materials in use, help the problems caused by the growing waste of items for one -off cup of cups from one -off cup of cups from a million -wide cupsoning two years.

“Circular systems such as these are the way of the future, and Reloop expects to see more of them throughout Europe as companies find them out and introduce regulators support policy”

Another lesson that can be learned from Denmark is by looking at its successful National Deposit Return scheme that was introduced in 2000.

After countless setbacks, Labor has adopted laws to increase the recycling of plastic bottles and drinking cans and to reduce litter.

An eye-watery bottles for 31 billion use and cans are purchased every year in the United Kingdom with plans in England to take them back to October 2027.

But in Europe, the systems, known as a deposit return scheme or reverse sales machines, are so successful that 93% of all beverage containers are recycled in Denmark.

The consumer pays a down payment on a drink and this is repaid when they return the container – the most important source of plastic pollution that ends in rivers and seas – to a machine, normally in a supermarket or to a larger collection point.

Danks Returnsystem sees 5.6 million cans and bottles have returned every year. In the capital Copenhagen I witnessed how easy the scheme is to use.

The 10 cents deposit is returned when they are placed by a fresh sales machine by scanning the barcode of the product.

Hanne Svenningssen, head of the environment and policy in Danks Returnystem, said that the scheme “encourages people to give back their empty drink containers, to protect nature in the wild against litter and make our beaches and parks more pleasant places.”

In Latvia, the deposit return scheme was only introduced in 2022 with a return of 62% for the first year, which so far jumped to 86% this year.

Diana Imaka, production and financial director of the Latvia system, said that it had already significantly improved the stray problem on the street.

A recent report from the Environmental Organization Reloop’s, ‘strewn with evidence’, which uses data from the Ocean Conservancy of Beachwatch data food, showed that on average the share containers in the areas was in areas with a deposit scheme.

These diagrams also mean that beverage containers such as cans and bottles can be recycled – reducing the demand for new, raw materials – reducing the voltage on the resources of our planet and reducing carbon emissions.

The Navy Conservation Society has led a decade campaign to have DRS implemented in the United Kingdom. Catherine Gemmell from The Charity said: “From the report of our state of our beaches 2024, drink -related nesting items were found on 96% of British and canal island of beach cleaners. As well as spoiling our beautiful coastline, these items can be a real problem for wild animals.

“Plastic bottles can break down in microplastics, which, if they are taken by marine animals can harm their health, while sharp edges on drinks can also injure animals in the wild. We are delighted that we are now starting in all four British nations in October 2027.”

She added: “It was fantastic to see the positive impact of the DRS schemes in Denmark and Latvia from first hand. Everyone with whom we spoke said it is so easy and they see less litter on beaches and in the environment.”

“We will respond to government consultations to ensure that politicians throughout the country are aware of the enormous benefits that a well -designed Drs will provide.”