I slide the thick white plastic cup with its blue lid into the hole, and continue to follow the instructions written on the deposit machine.
Placing my credit card on the designated card area, a tingle tells me that in a few moments, five Danish crowns (around 70 euro cents) will be returned to my bank account.
In January 2024, the Danish city of Aarhus launched a three-year trial project to curb the number of disposable coffee cups. Instead of chucking them away, locals can use deposit machines designed by Norwegian waste management company TOMRA.
“Through waste analysis, we discovered that 45 per cent of waste in Aarhus came from takeaway packaging,” says Simon Smedegaard Rossau, project manager for circular packaging at Aarhus Municipality. “This finding was a turning point.”
