15 cafés across Dunedin are set to launch the nationally and internationally successful cup reuse initiative, CupCycling™, on 21 February 2019, coinciding with Orientation Week.

CupCycling, the brainchild of Kiwi company IdealCup™, works on the same principle as Boomerang Bags – the customer pays a one-off ‘bond’ as a membership to the programme to get the ongoing use of a reusable CupCycling cup from any participating café. Customers simply return the dirty cup to any participating outlet and order a takeaway drink in a clean cup from any participating café for the price of the drink only.

The CupCycling model has been successful across other parts of New Zealand, including Wellington, Central Otago, Upper Hutt, Titirangi, Golden Bay and Nelson Tasman, and in British Columbia, Canada. Participating outlets can text their weekly ‘single-use cups diverted from landfill’ stats to IdealCup to track the difference they are making – every CupCycling drink sold equals one disposable takeaway cup saved from landfill.

“We are so thrilled to get CupCycling operating in Dunedin,” says IdealCup co-owner Stephanie Fry. “We’ve had fantastic support from several key people to help get this up and running, particularly Leigh McKenzie from Dunedin City Council, Allison Wallace from Keep New Zealand Beautiful, Laura Cope from Use Your Own Cup Café Guide, and Dunedin City Councillor and The Breeze host Damian Newell.

“We have worked in the sustainability space for nearly 15 years and we are so proud to be able to provide leadership and vision for a cleaner, greener Aotearoa by giving Kiwis the option to reuse, and reduce waste in our landfills via our CupCycling system.”

Since its inception, CupCycling has achieved some impressive and quantifiable results. Motueka CupCycling has diverted more than 16,000 single-use cups from landfill in just a year, and the Corporate CupCycling version of the programme, running in the NZ Post Wellington HQ café “Kanteen” has diverted more than 12,000 cups from landfill in only five months.

The Dunedin CupCycling cups are branded with the city’s striking, gothic-style Dunedin logo, printed in white on a black cup. So far, Otago Museum Café, Marbecks, Copper Café, Morning Magpie, Project Wellness, Kind Grocer, Modaks, Taste Nature, The Esplanade, No7 Balmac, Blueskin Nurseries, Grid Coffee, Watson’s Eatery, Artisan French Pastries and Beam Me Up Bagels are signed up to rollout with the CupCycling system on 21 February.

Other regions throughout New Zealand are looking to follow suit and adopt CupCycling this year including Southland, Whakatane, Thames, Wairarapa, Petone, Hutt City, Waipa, Hawkes Bay and Tauranga.

ENDS

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