Estonian Start-Up Envisions a Future without Plastic Waste

This article originally appeared in WIoT Group.

Founded in 2018, the team has grown to a size of 11 members and served 11 customers on 6 locations at the end of 2021. At the beginning of 2022, a total of 20 Smart Return Kiosks were in operation.

The first prototype of Cuploop’s Smart Return Kiosk was developed in 2019. In 2020, Cuploop raised 550,000 euros through financing and entered the market with the fully developed Smart Return Kiosk in the spring of 2021.

Cuploop’s solution optimizes the return process of reusable food containers and automates the return of deposits. The reverse vending machines are positioned at venues such as a sports stadium or concert hall. When food and beverages are sold in reusable packaging, customers pay a deposit amount for each cup or food container. After the food has been consumed, the packaging is returned through the hatch of the reverse vending machine.

The RFID chip integrated into the cup or food container not only allows the containers to be returned in batches, but also allows them to be identified at the same time. By tapping a contactless bank card or smartphone on the payment terminal of the Smart Return Kiosk, customers are refunded the deposit amount through the NFC transaction. The Smart Return Kiosks are emptied daily.

Reverse Vending Machine with RFID and NFC

The reverse vending machine consists of two areas: the so-called “brain” of the product, which includes the hatch for returning food containers, the RFID reader and the NFC banking terminal, and the 360-liter storage container for returned items. The RFID tags are attached to the reusable packaging. When the cups are returned through the hatch of the reverse vending machine, the RFID tags of all inserted cups are read.

The refund is calculated and transferred back to the customer via an NFC bank terminal on the Smart Return Kiosk with a tap of their bank card or smartphone.

The cups can be cleaned and can be reused approximately 200 to 300 times. A single Smart Return Kiosk can hold 300 to 350 half-liter cups before it needs to be emptied. Once the reverse vending machine is half full, it sends a notification to be emptied soon. Another notification is sent when the storage is full.

Advantages of Cuploop

High speed

Food container return and deposit payment are several times faster with RFID than with barcodes or QR codes. Multiple food containers are identified at the same time. The payout takes place automatically. The entire return process takes just a few seconds.

Solution Sustainability

Food containers can be washed and reused for 200 to 300 cycles and beyond. Fewer natural resources are used.

Recycling of RFID Tags

Plastic material and the components of the RFID tag can be easily separated in the recycling process. The plastics are ground into granules and placed in a pool. The metal parts of the RFID tag sink to the bottom and the adhesive is separated from the plastic floating on the surface. The plastic can be reused for another life cycle.

Cost Efficiency

RFID labels are priced at three to five cents each, in some cases 15-25 cents (industrial grade) each, depending on specification. Labelling both reusable and disposable packaging is becoming more economical.

Challenges and Vision of Cuploop

Cuploop’s vision is a future without plastic waste. The goal is to create a network of return vending machines for both reusable and disposable packaging as part of a smart city infrastructure. Waste prevention and environmental protection are a global trend.

By using RFID tags, Cuploop is able to collect a variety of data – for example, how many usage cycles a package has gone through, and when and where the food container was returned. Cuploop anticipates that this data can be used in the future to provide Big Data analytics and statistics to customers. Customers will be able to quantify how many usage cycles their food containers have gone through.

One challenge for Cuploop is to quickly distribute the Smart Return Kiosks and establish itself as a solution provider for returnable packaging. The Cuploop Smart Return Kiosk itself is currently being further developed to also enable QR code reading. The next generation of Cuploop Smart Return Kiosks is expected to be modular.

By offering the “brains” of the reverse vending machine – the return hatch, RFID reader and banking terminal – as a module, Cuploop customers will be able to install these components in a wall, for example, much like an ATM. The size of the storage bin will be adjustable to accommodate more returned food containers. The aim is an area-wide placement of the reverse vending machines.

Interview with Lauri Luik

Interview

1. What was the motivation for Cuploop to develop its solution?

The idea was to replace single-use with re-usable packaging. Our co-founder Marek attended an event in 2018 that tried to achieve this, but returning the packaging took a long time. The event organizers had problems with the existing systems that were not able to process refunds automatically. Refunding in cash or via app is too complicated at an event with 60,000 people.

We started to figure out how to automate the collecting of re-usable packaging and the deposit refund, and to make this service as easy to use as possible. We don’t ask anybody to download any kind of app, fill out a form or give us personal data. The only thing you need to use the solution is your bank card or smartphone.

2. Why does Cuploop use RFID technology, instead of for example barcode or QR-code?

We wanted to make the return process fast. When tens of thousands of people at a concert for example head to the exit and want to return their re-usable packaging, reading the tags one by one with barcode or QR-code takes too long. You can put 40 cups into our Smart Return Kiosk at once and it reads them all instantly.

We see the biggest advantage if the amount of food containers increases. When most of the vendors switch to re-usable, it is impossible to read large amounts of food containers with barcode or QR-code. With our system, you can read thousands of packaging instantly and track them.

3. Why are event organizers not just using paper cups instead of plastic cups?

The paper cups actually have very thin layer of plastic inside. If the material ends up in nature or in the ocean, then it’s about as harmful to the environement as plastic. Therefore, this is not a good solution. Re-usable packaging is the best alternative for single use. And the best material for re-usable items seems to be plastic, PP and PET, because it is not expensive, it is not heavy, and it is very durable. The cups can last for 200 to 300 use cycles and more.

And it is very easy to use RFID on those re-usable plastic cups. If you use a re-usable container, it’s already more environmentally friendly after the third use, and even more economical after the 15th use.

4. Do your customers have to buy the Smart Return Kiosk, or is it rented out?

In the beginning, our aim was to sell the Smart Return Kiosks, but we have also designed a rental model as well as a subscription model. Our main business is that we take a small fee for every food container that is returned into our Smart Return Kiosk, we call it fee per scan.

In big grocery stores, it can be 1 cent per unit of food container. For big events like concerts, basketball games and football games, it can be 10 cents. It depends on the business.

Our interest is to spread out our Smart Return Kiosks as fast as possible everywhere. We can approach the vendors and provide the full service. In some cases, our clients are actually the service providers, meaning that they take care of emptying our Smart Return Kiosks as well as logistics and washing.

5. What is your vision for Cuploop?

We see a future where there is no plastic waste. And our aim is to make our solution universal and make our Smart Return Kiosks part of a smart city infrastructure. Single use items are not good for the environment, and many big companies and governments have realized this. Most of the big companies want to show that they are green, or at least going greener.

What is interesting is that we have only reached out to our very first client in Estonia when we started. All other clients have actually reached out to us by themselves. They have some somehow found us, which actually confirms that we are doing the right thing.