Well done Anna Ulahelová ! I really like that you're focusing on the human factor of wastefulness and promoting communities to really care. In my experience it is the conversations that are the most valuable drivers of change. I've been working on a similar initiative in Perth, Western Australia called GO2CUP - Facilitating participation and cooperation towards a waste free future. I'm putting together a Facebook group for cafes participating with returnable cup libraries if you and your trial cafes would like to join and discuss challenges and ways to improve? Also, you don't need the 3,000 cups to trial the idea. Cups can be easy to come by in second hand stores or out of the cupboard of people in the community who want to reduce disposable cups from their favourite cafe. It's also a great way to involve the community and build a support network before you invest in purchasing 3,000 cups. It's also a good way to start dialogue with cafes because if the initiative doesn't work for the cafe and their staff then they won't drive it.

Hi Sara Nejad , based on their Instagram page I believe they have a number of cafes operating in both New York and Boulder. Check out their website: http://vesselwrks.com

The real challenge for these style of initiatives to spread far and wide is the adoption by cafes. Most cafes run on such small profit margins and/or very targeted marketing in a competitive industry that it is hard for them to contribute time or money towards the collection and washing of reusable cups. It makes sense to us because we care but for these initiatives to thrive we need to put ourselves in the shoes of cafe owners just trying to make a living or the coffee drinker that just wants their favourite cup of coffee. Amongst all that we need to find a way to resource washing local reusable cups rather than using ridiculously cheap disposable cups.

Hi Marifer Victoria , I'm sure your cup will be much more ocean friendly than the polyethylene lined disposable cups that fill our ocean. However, have you thought about the consequence to marine life if the ocean was filled with your cups? Would the fish that eat your broken down cups overpopulate our oceans? Have you considered any form of cup recovery? Maybe your cup could be used to feed fish farms in isolation without disrupting the balance of our marine ecosystems?