reCups, a Concept by Design vs Art
Huge amounts of disposable cups are produced, used and discarded everyday by the fast food industry. These cups are made of material difficult to recycle, a great deal of resources are wasted in production, transport and disposal. Big restaurant chains in particular have the power to produce a strongly positive effect to the world if they avoided disposable cups.
reCups is a cup refund system providing collection, handling and washing solutions. Its characteristics assure an easy, economically feasible and attractive integration in large fast food restaurant chains.
The cycle starts charging the customer an additional 20 cents to the soda price. reCups are made of resistant long-life plastic that can be recycled after hundreds of uses. The standard reCup design allows returning to any of the Refund Stations, where reCups are sorted in racks and the customer is refunded.
A trolley specifically designed enables the employee to replace the racks containing dirty reCups with empty ones in a few seconds. reCups are washed and stacked by the washing unit in less than 5 minutes. reCups are ready to be used again, no trash has been created, both water and energy saved in considerable amounts.