Can This City Banish Single-Use Coffee Cups?

Why this story matters: Real growth doesn't always come with a grand announcement; sometimes it’s the result of years of quiet, steady persistence. This piece honors that journey by highlighting a success story that was a long time in the making.

Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to sustainability, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results.

This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation.

If you line up to get coffee at one of Aarhus University’s many cafeterias, you won’t see a stack of disposable cups as you do at most cafes. Instead, if you want your flat white to go, you’ll be asked to pay 5 Danish kronor ($0.76) for a white polypropylene cup with a blue lid, branded with the word “REUSEABLE” in bold blue letters.

You may even see people bringing the same REUSEABLE cup from home to fill with coffee day after day. “They’re very nice cups to have for parties or when friends come over. So I have a lot that I reuse outright. Often I will collect and use them for a while, and then at some point I just return them when I feel like I have too many,” says Emilio Sopprani, a student who has lived in Aarhus for two years.

These cups can be returned to one of over 27 RVMs (reverse vending machines) across the city center, the Royal Danish Library and Aarhus University (AU) campuses, in exchange for pant (a 5-kroner refundable deposit). REUSEABLE cups come in two varieties: the blue and white lidded cup for hot beverages, and a taller, clear cup for iced beverages and beer. They are part of a city-wide pilot project to reduce single-use packaging, launched in 2024 by the municipality of Aarhus and Norwegian packaging company TOMRA.

“We try to have the price of each [REUSEABLE] cup be similar to the price of the single-use cups, because we see that the market is very cost-driven,” says Anders Laursen, project manager of the REUSEABLE project at Aarhus Municipality.

Single-use packaging is a major contributor to global waste. On average, 820,000 single-use cups are thrown away in a single day in Denmark, accounting for about 40 to 45 percent of all waste produced.

“Takeaway packaging is a growing challenge all over the world,” says Jacob Rognhaug, vice president of public affairs at TOMRA, adding that the company has been exploring reusable takeaway packaging since 2022.

Reusable to-go coffee cups aren’t new; nor are urban programs to reduce single-use plastic. Cities including Lisbon;Dubai;Freiburg, Germany; and Petaluma, California, have attempted to ban plastic cups or push reusable to-go cups. But one of the biggest obstacles is the resources needed to collect, sanitize and put the cups or other packaging back into circulation. REUSEABLE has dealt with this problem by making its centralized collection stations accessible all across the city. Eighty-nine percent of these cups were reportedly returned in 2025.

The project came about when Aarhus Kommune (the municipality of Aarhus) was looking for a way to reduce single-use plastic waste in the city, especially around the center. “We spoke to some local baristas who said they really wanted to put a reusable cups system in place, but couldn’t because of the effort and resources involved. They were in the business of selling coffee, not packaging,” says Laursen, adding that this made them realize there was “a bigger potential than we thought.”

Beginning in January 2024, REUSEABLE cups were supplied to cafes, AU campuses and the Royal Danish Library. While cafes in the center offer a choice between disposable or REUSEABLE cups, they are the only and default option at AU’s many cafeterias and at the library.

“It was very natural for us when we started looking at how many disposable cups we used every day in all our universities,” says Esben Luplau, Head of Food Innovation at Compass Group, the catering company that provides catering to all the cafeterias at AU. “We figured that we have to do something about it. So many cups were being thrown out everyday.”

In addition to the university cafeterias, REUSEABLE cups have also recently been introduced at Student House, a nonprofit cafe, bar and events space for students in Aarhus.

“We switched completely to REUSEABLE cups instead of plastic cups across the House last autumn,” says Emil Wæver, who is in charge of inventory and products at Student House. “Many more people are familiar with the system now compared to two years ago, where it was very new.”

The most waste tends to be generated at large parties, parades and festivals. One of the biggest pressure tests of the REUSEABLE system so far was Aarhus Festival Week 2025 (Aarhus Festuge), when over 160,000 REUSEABLE cups were sold — and a whopping 95 percent were returned.

Wæver also shared that at Aarhus Pride 2025, another major event for the city, Student House sold beer only in REUSEABLE cups. “We had a collaboration with the company to set up temporary ‘pant stations’ at the venue, so people could deposit their cups right there,” he says.

A unique set of factors has contributed to the success of this initiative in Aarhus.

A high sense of environmental consciousness in Denmark, especially among young people, coupled with higher trust in governmental systems seems to have worked in REUSEABLE’s favor. “Danes in general are very trustful towards each other and towards the authorities,” says Anders Branth Pedersen, environmental policy expert and senior researcher at AU.

Denmark also already has a bottle and can recycling system in place at most grocery stores.

“We have one of the world’s best bottle recycling systems in Denmark. More than nine in 10 bottles are returned. Danes are preconditioned to adapt well [to something like REUSEABLE],” says Pedersen.

A 2024 survey on cleanliness by Aarhus Municipality found high levels of satisfaction with REUSEABLE. Eighty-eight percent of Aarhusians indicated that they were familiar with the system, 39 percent said they had used it at least once and 84 percent said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the system. REUSEABLE was most popular among younger people (ages 18 to 34) and citizens in the city center, with over 50 percent of respondents from these categories saying they’d used it. However, both users and non-users of the system asked for more deposit options.

“There aren’t enough machines around town where you can return them,” Sopprani agrees. “But I think it does a really good job at fixing a problem which is very real.”

While adoption is high, one significant obstacle on the horizon is cost. The municipality has spent over 3.5 million kroner (about $535,000 U.S.) on this program. In order to be independently financially viable, REUSEABLE adoption would need to reach eight times its current level, and the program would have to expand across the nation.

For optimal success, Rognhaug estimates that each cup needs to average at least six rotations, with return rates hitting 90 percent. Even though return rates are currently at 87 to 89 percent, and the most-returned cups have reached 40 rotations, more people need to opt for REUSEABLE cups over the alternative for the system to be truly viable.

Though REUSEABLE cups are the default at the university and at major festivals, “the majority of outlets serving consumers in takeaway packaging in Aarhus are still using single-use or disposable alternatives,” says Rognhaug. “When given a choice the majority of consumers are not deviating from the default of disposable cups.”

Unlike Lisbon or Freiburg, Aarhus has not yet implemented a ban or tax on single-use cups. “However, Denmark is working on a national reuse mandate, which means there may be an enabling policy framework on the way,” notes Rognhaug.

Challenges aside, the pilot program has shown promising results, with over two million cups collected since January 2024, and there are plans to expand into other single-use packaging, including salad bowls.

Laursen echoes the slogan of REUSEABLE: Every cup counts. “Every time a REUSEABLE cup is returned to an RVM, we know that’s one single-use cup not being thrown out as waste,” he says. After the pilot phase ends in half a year, the municipality will remain involved, Laursen says, because it sees the benefit of the system in the city.

“We will try to expand it one step, one cup at a time.”

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