UlsanCup rents reusable cups for a deposit to reduce the use of disposable cups and carbon emissions.

⚠️ Extremely low recycling rate

• In Korea, more than 1 billions disposable cups are used annually.
• Only 5% of disposable cups are recycled – the rest (95%) are incinerated or landfilled.

‼ Disposable cups in UNIST campus

• 170K–200K disposable cups are used annually
• Leftover beverages mixed with other wastes, making it much harder to recycle
• Wastes produced by 5,000 people are handled by only 3 cleaning staff
• UNIST as a whole spends roughly KRW 239 million for waste management of all the buildings

Ulsan Cup Service Model

• The lifecycle of disposable cups is linear – they are manufactured, transported, used and then disposed (either landfill or incinerated)
• UlsanCup has a circular lifecycle – it’s manufactured, transported, used, washed and reused until it cannot be used anymore, then it is recycled to make new cups.
• UlsanCup is washed, sanitized and dried in 5-step process by a professional washing service that also washes food plates for kindergardens

Collaborators