Across Europe, many businesses and governments are looking to reduce the use of single use cups, and are “deploying technology to make returns [of reusable cups] easier, offering financial incentives for those who return their cups and fining those who don’t. It’s all part of an effort to reduce waste and lower greenhouse-gas emissions. Cups have turned into a focal point for many reuse programs because they’re easy to standardize and attempts to motivate people to bring their own reusable cups have rarely succeeded,” reported The Wall Street Journal.

Europe has been promoting reusable cups in light of new laws. The Journal reported that cafes and QSRs with more than 10 employees in the European Union by 2028 are required to offer reusable containers and be part of an organized plan that allows consumers to return containers that they have washed, dried and reused. Since 2003, France has required casual dining chains to serve customers in reusable containers if they’re eating in. And in Germany, larger food establishments and stadiums must offer customers the option of a reusable cup.

In Aarhus, Denmark, 70 cafes and other venues are participating in a returnable-cup program that has saved an estimated 1.1 million disposable cups from being thrown away since its inception at the start of last year, according to Simon Rossau, the city’s project manager for reusables.

Customers buying drinks at participating venues either get or can ask for a polypropylene cup bearing the word REUSABLE. A cup can be returned at any one of 28 receptacles around the city center by tapping a payment card and pushing the cup through a hole. The machines, owned by Norwegian technology company Tomra Systems, read a QR code on the cup, triggering a refund equivalent to about 78 cents to the person’s card. The program’s return rate is currently 87%, per WSJ.

The efforts in Europe are “notably ahead of those elsewhere. In the U.S., the rarity of laws targeting disposables has mostly limited reuse to so-called closed-loop systems where diners and drinkers return containers inside a single venue like a stadium, university or hospital. … A lack of deposits has hurt some reuse efforts. Last year, for instance, a three-month trial of reusable cups in the California city of Petaluma netted a return rate of just 51%.”