{"id":11665,"date":"2022-09-27T16:43:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T16:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrtcarting.com\/?p=11665"},"modified":"2022-09-27T16:56:19","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T16:56:19","slug":"customer-feature-cupzero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrtcarting.com\/customer-feature-cupzero\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Feature: CupZero"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tucker Mitchell, Mr. T Carting Marketing Project Manager<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As part of our ongoing customer feature series, we sat down for an interview with Michael Cyr, the founder of <\/span>CupZero<\/span><\/a>. Started in 2019, the company provides reusable durable plastic cups for catering and event spaces. The Zero Waste service provides shipping, storage and cleans the cups\u2013helping customers reduce waste generation and meet their Zero Waste goals. Cyr was a former sales team member at Mr. T Carting and used his experience and industry knowledge to launch a successful sustainability service in New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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CupZero cups are durable, and reusable. Image provided by CupZero<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What is CupZero?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201c<\/span>CupZero<\/span><\/a> is on a mission to change single use culture, starting with one cup at a time. Basically, we look for opportunities where there\u2019s a lot of single use beverageware being used and then we replace that with reusable systems. What we do is a lot of the dirty work of delivering, picking up, washing, sanitizing off-site so our customers can focus on what they do best: throwing big parties, concerts, festivals. [Laughs] they\u2019ve got enough on their hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

When was CupZero founded?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cWe started in 2019. We got our washing space up and running in May of that year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Where\u2019s your washing space located?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cWe are on our third, biggest and best washing space in Long Island City!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Containers full of CupZero cups are waiting to be loaded into a truck. Image provided by CupZero<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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So cup Zero is growing pretty quickly, then?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cAfter the pandemic, we had to. At one point we had a problem where we just didn\u2019t have enough space to dry and wash and move around all of our cups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of the pandemic, you were founded in 2019. That must have been a struggle.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cIt was terrible. It was a really difficult time. We had just gotten our legs under us as a new business. We had a bunch of recurring clients and a couple venues. And then the pandemic hit and all of our customers went out of business. Not only were they not contracting with us, but a lot of them didn\u2019t survive after the pandemic. We spent a lot of time trying to convince restaurants to go zero waste. I tried the coffee shops and the bars but it was just a really tough time to pitch sustainability and reuse in the midst of a global pandemic. It wasn\u2019t until June and July of 2021 when events started picking up. It was this really hesitant time where venues didn\u2019t know how many people they could have, they didn\u2019t know if they had to do on the spot vaccine checks. Those were all really small events. Now it seems to be back\u2013business as usual. Which is a cool time to be around. It\u2019s a great growth phase.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Cups on display at an event. Image provided by CupZero<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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How many drink containers do you think CupZero has \u201csaved\u201d?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cThis year we\u2019ve saved over 300,000 cups. We\u2019re pretty close to the half a million lifetime mark.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you recycle cups once they\u2019ve become unusable?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cWe want to reduce the amount of lost cups [as much as] possible. There is always a loss rate. That happens. And I want to make that clear. We\u2019re dealing with nightlife. Our goal is always to minimize that. Our cups are super durable, so they don\u2019t need to be retired very often. But if they do get stepped on or someone puts out their cigarette on the side of one. We do need to retire those. We work with a local recycler called <\/span>Precious Plastic<\/span><\/a>. They are a DIY shredder facility where they will shred things on site, put it into an injection mold and make an art project or something out of it on a local level. It also teaches kids the full cycle of recycling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cheers! Image provided by CupZero<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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You used to work at Mr. T Carting. What can you tell us about your experience there?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cMr. T is a great company. I went there with the hopes of getting everyone to manage their waste better. That was what I wanted to accomplish: to get everyone to recycle, to get everyone to compost. I was pretty quickly hit with the fact that not everyone necessarily wants to do that as business owners.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How did your time working at Mr. T Carting inform your experience founding CupZero?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cI had a very clear moment where I was doing a waste audit on an office building in Manhattan. These buildings produce hundreds and hundreds of bags every night. And\u00a0 I had this feeling, standing knee deep in trash, weighing all of these bags and recycling bags and looking at how bad the recycling was sorted. And just looking at all the other buildings around, knowing that every waste station from every desk, every cantine is coming down to the bottom every day to be trucked out all the time. There\u2019s a limit to what recycling can actually accomplish viably. So for me I was like \u2018we can keep pushing towards trying to get people to recycle better or we can make systems to make less waste in the first place\u2019. That\u2019s really what my drive for starting CupZero was. I had seen similar systems in Europe before. I didn\u2019t see anything like that in the US, really and definitely much less in New York.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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CupZero reusable coffee mugs. Image provided by CupZero<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What\u2019s next for CupZero?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s next for CupZero is 1: Growing out in New York. And 2: We want to move into a couple different cities in the next year or two. My vision for the world, and what I think the world needs is similar to all of the carting companies out there. I think there needs to be an equal amount of washing stations as there are transfer stations out there. I really want to set up washing infrastructure in as many places as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there anything else you\u2019d like to highlight?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cReturn your cups if you\u2019re at an event!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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CupZero is also running a second business focused on providing reusable coffee cups to coffee shops. Customers can borrow a cup from one coffee shop, and return it to another participating business. Michael Cyr describes it as \u201cCiti-Bike but for cups. You don\u2019t have to worry about remembering your own, you can just check one out whenever you get coffee.\u201d You can learn more about both companies by <\/span>clicking here<\/span><\/a>. CupZero is based out of Long Island City.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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To learn more about Mr. T Carting\u2019s Services, please visit us online at www.MrTCarting.com<\/a>, email us at CustomerService@MrTCarting.com<\/a>, or call us at (718) 821-9706.<\/p>\n

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Mr. T Carting Corporation, 73-10 Edsall Ave, Glendale, NY 11385, BIC # 173<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tucker Mitchell, Mr. T Carting Marketing Project Manager As part of our ongoing customer feature series, we sat down for an interview with Michael Cyr, the founder of CupZero. Started in 2019, the company provides reusable durable plastic cups for catering and event spaces. 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