InstaRinse: A project to develop and publicly trial a novel, high efficiency, cup-washing appliance

在咖啡店、办公室和大学里，一次性咖啡杯已经成为英国垃圾泛滥的代名词。在美国每年使用的25亿个杯子中，99.75%被送往垃圾填埋场(下议院环境审计委员会-2017)，其中500亿被送往垃圾填埋场(地球日)。移动咖啡的消费量正在增加，而增加可重复使用的咖啡的使用被证明是具有挑战性的。只有3%的人采用了它们(星巴克-2019)，尽管这并不是因为缺乏可重复使用的产品。这是一个关键问题，突显了与一次性塑料袋相比的潜在挑战。除了环保慈善机构的喧嚣，我们还调查了可重复使用的使用率如此之低的原因。在我们的160名受访者中，有40%的人认为运送脏杯子是他们拒绝的主要原因。许多大公司为了解决浪费问题，向员工发放了可重复使用的杯子。然而，可重复使用物品的生命周期评估(LCA)强调，如果它们没有以有效的方式清洗，即在洗碗机(RECYC-QUEébec)中清洗，这可能会对环境产生负面影响。问题在于，大多数人都会用手洗碗(洗碗花的时间太长)。一个拥有100名员工的办公室，每年仅洗手可重复使用的水就可能超过10万升。InstaRinse在一个未被开发的空间提供了一个独特的解决方案。它被设计为独立或内置单元，是客户操作的自给式设备，允许用户高效且卫生地快速(~15s)冲洗和干燥可重复使用的物品。这意味着对基于厨房洗碗机和水槽的有限最先进技术的彻底颠覆。关键挑战包括解决热量、清洁和干燥的平衡，以实现适合多种容器尺寸/形状的最佳、安全和卫生的蒸汽清洗。我们将调整我们创新原型的技术，以满足利益相关者确定的需求。

Across coffee shops, offices and universities, the disposable coffee cup has become synonymous with the UK's waste epidemic. 99.75% of the 2.5bn cups used annually are sent to landfill (House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee-2017) with \>50bn in the USA (earthday).On-the-go coffee consumption is increasing, while increasing the use of reusables is proving challenging. Only 3% of people have adopted them (Starbucks-2019), though this is not down to lack of reusables available. This is a key issue and highlights the underlying challenge compared to single-use plastic bags. Alongside environmental charity Hubbub, we investigated why reusable uptake is so low. \>40% of our 160 and Hubbub's 3,000+ respondents cited transporting a dirty cup as their key reason for rejection.Many large companies, in a bid to tackle their waste, have issued their employees with a reusable cup. However, life cycle assessment (LCA) of reusables highlights how this may have a negative environmental effect if they are not washed in an efficient manner, i.e. in a dishwasher (RECYC-QUÉBEC). The issue lies in that most people handwash them (dishwashers take too long). An office of 100 employees, may use over 100,000 litres of water annually simply handwashing reusables.InstaRinse offers a unique solution in an under-explored space. Designed as a free-standing or built-in unit, it is a customer operated, self-contained, appliance, which allows users to rapidly (~15s) rinse and dry reusables efficiently and hygienically. This represents a radical disruption to a limited state-of-the-art based on kitchen dishwashers and sinks.Key challenges include addressing the balance of heat, cleaning and drying to achieve an optimal, safe and hygienic steam-based wash suitable for multiple vessel sizes/shapes. We will adapt the technology of our innovative prototype to meet the need identified by stakeholders.