Vienna launches into the take-away coffee cup with a deposit In order to limit the consumption of single-use cups and their impact on the environment, an Austrian company has developed a returnable and reusable solution in the city centre. The initiative, called MyCoffeeCup, started two and a half months ago. Their purpose? To eliminate 1 million single-use cups, which would save 42 million liters of water and almost 2000 tonnes of wood per year. The company already has 60,000 cups in circulation and some 60 partners, mainly coffee and bakery shops. The cups, which can be used up to 500 times, can be exchanged at partners' premises or at automatic machines located, for example, near metro stations that can be located via a mobile application. The one-euro deposit is then returned via a paper voucher or credited to the MyCoffeeCup application. The project designers - currently in a pilot phase - hope to extend this system to the entire city if the results are conclusive. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES