(ffm) For the past year, the non-profit initiative cup2gether has been setting up and testing a pilot system to reduce disposable waste in Frankfurt with a lot of personal commitment and volunteer participation from many citizens and caf<x>ampersand</x>eacute;s in several parts of the city. Now Frankfurter Entsorgungs- und Service GmbH (FES) will roll out the system and transfer it to the requirements of a city-wide model.
The waste management company is thus simultaneously fulfilling the city of Frankfurt's mandate to further increase its commitment to waste avoidance in Frankfurt, in addition to its increased cleaning efforts as part of the #cleanffm campaign. The waste generated by to-go consumption, of which disposable cups account for a considerable share, produces significant and rising costs for the city society.
The chairwoman of the supervisory board of FES, Rosemarie Heilig, head of the department for environment and women of the city of Frankfurt, very much welcomes the fact that FES is tackling the task of a city-wide deposit system. "The path to a clean Frankfurt that is as low in plastic as possible cannot be taken by the city alone. We need the support of many people for this, and the introduction of a city-wide deposit system is something that is already desired by many people and is certainly widely accepted," Heilig is certain.
"With the establishment of reusable deposit systems, we at FES are breaking a bit of new ground," says Managing Director Benjamin Scheffler. "However, we have great expertise in education for waste avoidance as well as in logistics processes. We will make the cup a success story for the city." FES is already committed to environmental protection, sustainable resource use and waste avoidance in a variety of ways as part of its waste disposal mandate from the city of Frankfurt.
Behind the cup2gether initiative are the non-profit GmbH "Lust auf besser leben" and the VON WEGEN communications agency. Both will advise FES on the expansion in the future and contribute their extensive detailed knowledge to the project. There is agreement to continue to give broad scope to voluntary commitment in the future.
Claudia Schäfer, owner of the VON WEGEN agency: "We are very pleased that our cup2gether model is being placed on a broader basis with the help of FES. We wanted to make a lasting difference and improve things in Frankfurt and have now achieved a good deal. We look forward to this new chapter of cooperation with FES."
The two managing directors of "Lust auf besser leben", Marlene Haas and Alexandra von Winning, add: "Frankfurt owes the now planned city-wide deposit system primarily to the commitment of the large cup2gether community. All the voluntary cup ambassadors, clubs, companies and the many Cafés who have dared to take on this challenge with us right from the start. Without all this commitment, there would be no deposit system now."
