LOOP is proud to be piloting reusable take-away coffee cups in Helsinki this spring
24.03.2021Together with Kamupak, Palmia, Unicafe, Paulig Corner & the City of Helsinki LOOP is searching for concrete ways to reduce single-use plastics by piloting a reusable coffee cup deposit system in Helsinki.
This spring people living in Helsinki will have the opportunity to test reusable coffee cups as the pilot kicks off in 10 coffee houses and restaurants. When buying coffee-to-go, the customers can choose to drink from the reusable coffee cup, called KamuCup, with 1€ deposit. The deposit will be reimbursed to the customer as they return the cup to any of the coffee houses or restaurants taking part in the pilot.
The reusable cups and the deposit system for them comes from the Finnish startup Kamupak, who already has a similar system for takeaway lunch boxes. “The lunchboxes have been very nicely received among the customers and in some restaurants over 50% of to-go diners have chosen Kamupak over the regular single-use package. We are thrilled to start piloting our system also with new products and partners”, says Iida Miettinen, founder & CEO of Kamupak.
Inspiration for the pilot comes from similar pilots and services around the world. And the background for all this is the European Commission’s decision to ban single-use plastics later this year. A forerunner and inspiration in this is Germany, where reusable takeaway packages will become mandatory in 2023. Restaurants and coffee houses must offer reusable containers for their take-away products from 2023 onwards. For example one of the largest coffee-to-go providers in Germany, Aral, has already taken this step and co-operates with a local startup Recup. So it is time to take similar steps in the Nordics and this is why LOOP wants to accelerate the use of reusable takeaway containers together with Kamupak.
Collaboration to accelerate the use of reusable takeaway packaging
KamuCup pilot kicks off in April in at least 10 locations in Helsinki. The pilot will run for 3 months, during which time the environmental impacts of the reusable cup will be evaluated and data and feedback will be collected, both from the coffee houses and restaurants and the customers. The partners at the moment are Palmia, Unicafe, Paulig Corner & Juvenes, HUS Asvian Biomedicum, Borealis and the City of Helsinki. The pilot is run by Kamupak and Verona Growth & LOOP ecosystem. The aim is to continue, develop and scale the use of the Kamucup system after the pilot to make it an ongoing service also after the pilot.
The pilot will be partly funded by the Finnish Ministry of Environment and it is part of the national roadmap for plastics in Finland. One of the focus areas of the roadmap is to find ways to reduce the use of single-use plastics.
We want to invite everyone living or visiting Helsinki to test the KamuCup and give your valuable feedback. And a call to all coffee houses and restaurants not yet part of the pilot, contact Jenni if you would like to become a KamuCup partner or have any questions.