Words by Smiley Team
A city-wide borrow and return scheme for the hospitality and events and industry has opened in Bristol.
CanCan aims to reduce the use of disposable, single-use cups and containers. It's built around an app, which connects users to smart trackable cups and food containers, each fitted with a unique QR code.
Customers can find their nearest participating trader or venue, and then the next time they order a drink, the barista will scan their CanCan code and give them a returnable cup linked to their code.
Once they’ve finished their drink, they can use the CanCan app to locate the nearest return point. They only get charged if they don’t return the cup, and CanCan have to replace it.
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The UK government has recently announced a tax on all single-use items - from coffee stirrers to wooden cutlery, so it’s the perfect time for CanCan to launch. There is no other solution like this in the UK, based around a deposit-free, trackable reusable scheme, in which consumers pay nothing to use the service.
Each day, Bristol alone uses a staggering 66,500 disposable coffee cups, over 24 million per year, with only one in every 400 getting recycled. CanCan’s reusable cups are carbon saving after just three uses.
The introduction of CanCan follows the success of the Voi e-scooter trials, just park & Olio in Bristol. It is working collaboratively with some of the best of Bristol hospitality to help them to get one step closer to zero waste.
The schemes are designed to benefit high street retailers, coffee shops, bars, bakeries and by offering corporate solutions to offices, festivals and stadiums.
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CanCan is the brainchild of serial Bristol entrepreneurs – Jim Pizer, who founded the Thali Cafe chain of restaurants and Dan Wright, owner of Phineas Group, which manufactures sustainable products for retail.
Dan Wright, co-founder said: “With many old lifestyle habits having been broken in the last year or so, we think it is the perfect time to launch CanCan. It makes sense that the more we share, the less we waste and we want to make sharing second nature for everyone.
“We are starting with cups but there are so many other items that can be shared using our technology platform. It is an exciting time for the ‘sharing of things’ movement and we are leading the charge for hospitality and retail right here in our home city.”
Co-founder Jim Pizer added: “WWF recently predicted that the UK is set to throw away a third more takeaway drinks cups by 2030, as the second biggest users per person of single-use drinks cups, straws, food containers, crisp packets and wet wipes. We can’t let that happen and we believe that to turn this around, we have to make reusables a cost effective, easy and intuitive part of daily life for everyone.
“Bristol is the perfect launch location for CanCan. It is a hotbed of technological innovation and it is also a progressive city that cares about its environment. Working together with Bristol businesses we can give their customers new, innovative and less wasteful ways to buy their food and drink and we can showcase workable and thriving sharing economies to other UK cities.”
Find out more about CanCan and how you can get involved here.
