Good practice:

NICKNACK – Reusable cups

Two brothers Martin and Michal Hanak, together with their friend, got inspired in Germany at a U2 group concert, where they noticed an unusual phenomenon in the audience. Being from the Czech Republic, they were used to the fact that concert floors are mostly covered with used plastic cups.
In 2011, they decided to establish H2D and invented a more durable plastic cup with a unique handle, named NICKNACK. NICKNACK has been registered as an industrial design that applies throughout the EU and is patented in the Czech Republic.
It all works on the deposit principle . The festival will buy cups and sell them together with a drink for 2 Eur. If you buy another drink, you only pay the price of the drink. You can either return the cup at the end of the event and get your 2 Eur deposit or take it home as a souvenir and reuse it for another event.
What distinguishes this crucible from others? It is the only cup with a hanging clip system in Europe – to be hanged on a belt. Other companies use a classic lug handle. The cup is more resilient than standard plastics and safer than glass. Cold beverages do not get warm quickly, hot ones do not get cold.
If the crucible is damaged, the NICKNACK company cooperates with BRNO Metal company, which crushes the cups and remanufactures items from them (baskets, covers, furniture). The cups can be printed with your own image - it can no longer be changed, so such images are printed that can be used for several years of festivals or events.

The founders initially invested their own savings in the company, and in 2013 the company got an investment of 120 000 euros from new members of team (because they needed the washing machine for the cups)

The company collaborates with many festivals, sports activities, and beverage companies in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden.
Every year the company produces more than 300 000 pieces.
In 2018, approximately 5 million disposable plastic cups were replaced with returnable ones. Such a number of disposable cups would otherwise generate over 60 tonnes of waste.

Development is, of course, expensive. The company is constantly improving something and investing substantial funds. The last investment was the cups for coffees.

Sharing information about this product to other European countries could be inspiring, just as the founders of NICKNACK got inspired at the U2 concert in Germany. The concept has a big potential to expand. If the cup is not damaged, painted or does not have gums on it, it can be reused. It's about 100 times in one season. The production site of the company is a fully robotized workplace with a new ecological injection moulding machine, which significantly minimizes the ecological footprint of crucible production.
NickNack is becoming trendy and, in a sense, a phenomenon. The vision is the NICKNACK cups to become the standard, commonly used in the Czech Republic or the EU. It brings a lot of benefits thanks to the deposit – cleanness, tidiness and reusability.