A new, deliberately not overly pretty, reusable cup is being launched in Cayman by a company that says it's combining a revenue-maker with an approach that may reduce the number of disposable containers ending up in the landfill.
The ONECUP will be the first reusable cup subscription service for bars, restaurants, events and hotels in Cayman, says James Dartnall, founder of Island Cup Co, which produces the cups.
A long-time volunteer in beach clean-ups and with the Department of Environment, Dartnall said he hopes the ONECUP will help cut down on the use of throwaway plastic cups.
The kernel of the idea of developing the cups began during a one-and-a-half-year trip, from London, England, to Cape Town, South Africa, with his wife, where they decided to try to see if they could live without plastic during their journey.
Later, at a concert in Washington, DC, he came across reusable cups. "I started researching the company [that made those cups] and other companies," he said, noting that they are becoming more commonly used at large events, like music festivals and concerts.
He started to envision Cayman, with its daily influx of tourists and lively social scene, "as if every day is almost like a … very big event, and all of our hospitality vendors are operating within a small ecosystem, which they are. And then, is there a way of having a single drink cup that they all share, and they're all responsible for?"
He says the ONECUP can replace not just single-use plastic glasses, but also reusable acrylic cups "because acrylic, they're end-of-chain. When acrylics get cracked or milky, they get thrown away, they can't be recycled."
The plan for ONECUPs that come to the end of their use is to recycle them into plastic furniture. Once they get damaged or cracked and deemed unusable anymore, they would be shredded, melted and remolded into furniture, like benches, which, Dartnall hopes, the government will purchase and install as public fixtures.