Cupkita
Smart reusable coffee-cup service based on a borrow-use-return principle
Why reusable cups?
Disposable cups are a leading source of plastic waste and are a pain to recycle. The average coffee store in Jakarta sells around 125 single-use cups on a daily basis while the biggest chains sell up to 1,000. By using CupKita’s reusable cups, each store can avoid from 525 kg up to 2,100 kg of waste per year. These figures show a huge business and impact potential for CupKita to enable circular consumption in Jakarta.
How Cupkita eliminates avoidable single-use plastic waste
CupKita tackles the issue at the source, reducing single-use cups by providing an alternative system with smart reusable cups. The system model is a replication of Muuse – a company facilitating businesses, campuses and coffee shops with reusable items in San Francisco, Singapore, and Hong Kong. CupKita works on a borrow-use-return principle that enables coffee stores to lend reusable cups to their customers.
When ordering their hot takeaway drink, the customer receives it in a reusable cup in exchange for a refundable digital deposit they pay via a QR code. Once they’ve finished their coffee, they can return the empty cups to the coffee shop or smart bins and get their deposit back. CupKita collects the cups, washes, and then returns them so they are ready to be used again — in a fully circular manner.
Impact
Cupkita’s ambition is a total reform of the delivery and take-out industry through the introduction of reusable containers at every point in the system.
