As a response to people´s modern needs, all kinds of food and drink establishments offer take away, with the implied use of discardable containers such as cups and plastic spoons.

Drink packaging can go from the most economic even minimalistic Asian design approach, in which all we have is a bag and a straw, to the becoming-standard western wax coated paper cup. These are replacing the plastic cups not because of economical reasons but because of environmental issues. That is also why we rarely see warm takeaways in expandable polystyrene containers.

So, if we do are starting to design thinking of environmentally friendly products, why not go a step forward and change disposable cups for permanent ones? After all, the really effective solution to reduce waste is to avoid its production. On top of it there is the significant amount of energy saved in the whole process chain. Through a good product design strategy we can find a new solution for an old problem.

Refund systems have always been around; bars still return empty bottles and cases to the provider. Public transport systems in some cities don´t provide paper tickets, but magnetic cards that are returned after use to be reused.

Germany has succeeded in establishing a standardized refund system for plastic and glass bottles and has almost eliminated the use of cans for beverage in the German market.

Big fast food chains are in fact a very suitable environment for a cup refund system; a titanic number of cups used every day, efficient sharing of resources to reduce costs, multiple branches to return the used cups. In the mid term, it would even be a cheaper solution than disposable cups, not to mention the positive impact on the image of the brand betting on such an initiative.

Design vs Art proposes a cup refund system, integrating collection, washing and handling of cups. Its user oriented design provides easy and time-saving handling and attractive integration in large fast food restaurant chains.

Visit http://designvsart.com/reCups.html for more information.