Description
RECUP is a deposit system for reusable cups, bowls and pizza boxes in Germany: customers pay €1 for a cup, €5 for a bowl or €7 for a pizza box at a café or restaurant, and get the deposit back when they return the container to any partner. It is an alternative to single-use coffee cups and takeaway boxes.
Two founders, Fabian and Florian, started it in 2016 after seeing how many disposable cups were thrown away; RECUP GmbH is now run by a new management and a team of about 70. From 50 test partners, the network has grown to about 20,000: cafés, bakeries, restaurants, kiosks, petrol stations, hotels and canteens. It also operates in Austria and the Netherlands. Since 2023 German law has required larger takeaway outlets to offer a reusable option, and RECUP is one of the systems they can use.
According to RECUP, a cup can be washed up to 1,000 times and a bowl or pizza box about 500 times; the containers are made in Germany, free of BPA and recyclable. No app or account is needed to borrow or return them, and an app only shows where the partners are. Partners pay a fixed fee rather than per use, but the prices are only given on request. In a twelve-month pilot by the Deutsche Umwelthilfe and the Berlin environment department, RECUP and Einfach Mehrweg cups could be returned at machines in Rewe supermarkets.
Strengths
- One cup or bowl replaces hundreds of disposable ones, according to the company’s figures.
- The container can be returned to any of about 20,000 partners, not only where it was bought.
- No app or account is needed, only a deposit of €1, €5 or €7.
Weaknesses
- The benefit depends on people returning the containers, and the site doesn’t say how many come back.
- Partner fees are only given on request, so a small café can’t compare costs before asking.
- The network is much denser in cities than in the countryside.
Who it is for
People in Germany who often buy coffee or food to take away, and cafés, bakeries and canteens that must offer, or want to offer, a reusable option.