Aarhus' Innovative Reusable Cup Program Cuts Waste and Litter
Every weekend, as people make their way home from busy bars and clubs in Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, they often leave behind a trail of discarded cups, burger wrappers, and pizza boxes, clogging gutters and flowing into waterways. This growing litter problem has become a costly issue for the Viking-founded coastal city, which estimates that takeaway waste accounts for nearly half of the litter on its streets.
To tackle this, since January, the city has been trialing an innovative deposit-return program for reusable drink cups, the first of its kind in the world. The initiative aims to reduce the millions of single-use cups handed out by local baristas each year. Now, when people order a takeaway drink, they can pay a 5-krone (about 70 cents) deposit for a lidded, reusable cup marked with a blue REUSABLE logo. Once they’ve finished, they can return the cup to one of 27 machines throughout the city to be cleaned and redistributed, receiving their deposit back with a simple phone or card tap.
"Our vision is a city without waste bins," says Simon Smedegaard Rossau, Aarhus's project manager for circular systems. "It's about rethinking and being ambitious."
The program, which has already distributed around 630,000 reusable cups, has helped reduce waste by approximately 10 tons this year. The trial has been well received by both the public and local retailers, many of whom struggled with single-use packaging. Aarhus plans to extend the initiative to reusable containers for sushi, burgers, and salads.
The impact of Aarhus’s trial extends beyond the city, as takeaway packaging, including bags, utensils, and drink containers, has become a major source of litter in waterways and landfills worldwide. In response, many governments have banned single-use plastics such as bags and plates. As cities face growing waste challenges, leaders from countries like Japan and Brazil are closely watching Aarhus to decide whether to implement similar reusable systems.
For these programs to succeed, however, they must be financially viable. The costs of collection, sanitization, quality checks, and redistribution make it difficult to compete with the low price of single-use items, which typically cost just 15 cents each. To address this, policies are needed to create the conditions for effective reuse systems, says Geir Saether, senior vice president of circular economy at TOMRA Systems, the Norwegian sustainable tech company that partnered with Aarhus for the REUSABLE container project.
TOMRA adapted its existing reverse vending machines for bottles and cans to also handle coffee and drink cups. By adding a 5-krone returnable deposit to the purchase price, the program creates an effective incentive for consumers to return their used cups, ensuring high collection rates. To make the return process as easy as possible, machines are placed in busy areas about every 500 meters within the pilot zone, home to 50,000 residents.
Integrating cashless payments via Mastercard Move, a near-real-time platform, has helped streamline the experience, avoiding the need for clunky apps. "A solution based on reusable packaging isn’t as convenient as disposable packaging, so we aim to minimize the inconvenience," says Saether.
Saether points to measures like Lisbon’s plastic cup ban and Dubai’s all-encompassing ban on single-use plastics as examples of policies that could accelerate the adoption of reusable packaging. Such measures could play a key role in whether cities and countries decide to implement similar systems.
Nearly a year into the trial, Rossau reports that 88% of cups are being returned and recycled, and the streets of Aarhus are cleaner as a result. If successful, the program could be scaled up in larger cities like New York, provided space can be found for the necessary reverse vending machines.
"As city officials, we need to decide how to address the mounting waste problem," Rossau says. "If we don’t, our streets will only become more cluttered."
To tackle this, since January, the city has been trialing an innovative deposit-return program for reusable drink cups, the first of its kind in the world. The initiative aims to reduce the millions of single-use cups handed out by local baristas each year. Now, when people order a takeaway drink, they can pay a 5-krone (about 70 cents) deposit for a lidded, reusable cup marked with a blue REUSABLE logo. Once they’ve finished, they can return the cup to one of 27 machines throughout the city to be cleaned and redistributed, receiving their deposit back with a simple phone or card tap.
"Our vision is a city without waste bins," says Simon Smedegaard Rossau, Aarhus's project manager for circular systems. "It's about rethinking and being ambitious."
The program, which has already distributed around 630,000 reusable cups, has helped reduce waste by approximately 10 tons this year. The trial has been well received by both the public and local retailers, many of whom struggled with single-use packaging. Aarhus plans to extend the initiative to reusable containers for sushi, burgers, and salads.
The impact of Aarhus’s trial extends beyond the city, as takeaway packaging, including bags, utensils, and drink containers, has become a major source of litter in waterways and landfills worldwide. In response, many governments have banned single-use plastics such as bags and plates. As cities face growing waste challenges, leaders from countries like Japan and Brazil are closely watching Aarhus to decide whether to implement similar reusable systems.
For these programs to succeed, however, they must be financially viable. The costs of collection, sanitization, quality checks, and redistribution make it difficult to compete with the low price of single-use items, which typically cost just 15 cents each. To address this, policies are needed to create the conditions for effective reuse systems, says Geir Saether, senior vice president of circular economy at TOMRA Systems, the Norwegian sustainable tech company that partnered with Aarhus for the REUSABLE container project.
TOMRA adapted its existing reverse vending machines for bottles and cans to also handle coffee and drink cups. By adding a 5-krone returnable deposit to the purchase price, the program creates an effective incentive for consumers to return their used cups, ensuring high collection rates. To make the return process as easy as possible, machines are placed in busy areas about every 500 meters within the pilot zone, home to 50,000 residents.
Integrating cashless payments via Mastercard Move, a near-real-time platform, has helped streamline the experience, avoiding the need for clunky apps. "A solution based on reusable packaging isn’t as convenient as disposable packaging, so we aim to minimize the inconvenience," says Saether.
Saether points to measures like Lisbon’s plastic cup ban and Dubai’s all-encompassing ban on single-use plastics as examples of policies that could accelerate the adoption of reusable packaging. Such measures could play a key role in whether cities and countries decide to implement similar systems.
Nearly a year into the trial, Rossau reports that 88% of cups are being returned and recycled, and the streets of Aarhus are cleaner as a result. If successful, the program could be scaled up in larger cities like New York, provided space can be found for the necessary reverse vending machines.
"As city officials, we need to decide how to address the mounting waste problem," Rossau says. "If we don’t, our streets will only become more cluttered."
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