More than 250 cafés and shops around Hamburg have formed an innovative alliance to help protect the environment. With the KEHR-WIEDER (lit. 'return') initiative, the participating cafés hope to make disposable coffee cups a thing of the past. From November 2017 onwards, customers are rewarded with a 10 to 30 cent discount on hot beverages when bringing their own, reusable coffee cups.
So far, many city-wide coffee, bakery and fast-food chains as well as several independent coffee shops are already taking part in the initiative — with more to come. Simply look for the KEHR.WIEDER sticker at the door of your favourite café or see the for a concise overview of participating locations.
The project was initiated by the BUE Agency for Environment and Energy. They lead by example, having completely banned disposable cups from their in-house cafeteria. It’s estimated that this step will save around 15,000 paper cups per year. On a nationwide scale, millions of take-away coffee cups are thrown away every year, so there’s plenty more potential for waste reduction.