This project aims to develop and demonstrate a tailored deposit-return scheme for reusable lunch boxes for takeaway food. Working with campus food services and other relevant stakeholders, this project will work to transfer the successful Swiss ReCircle social enterprise model to the UCC campus. The scheme will introduce purpose-designed reusable boxes that can be used as alternatives to the single use plastic containers or wrap currently provided. Boxes will be subject to a deposit or loyalty card system, with the deposits returned or accounts released on return of the box. This is an approach that has been successfully deployed elsewhere. This project offers a chance to build on those previous experiences and deploy a system tailored to the Irish context and the specific needs of UCC. The demonstration will be documented in a case study outlining the experiences of designing and implementing the system on campus.

ReCircle Project Factsheet