I want to help establish a network of Totnes cafes and coffee shops offering ONLY RETURNABLE cups to their takeaway customers.

A customer would be able to buy a takeaway coffee from one shop and return the empty cup to any other in the network.

At the end of each day, the used cups would be collected from each coffee shop for washing and be replaced with clean cups.

I've worked out how to implement this system from a technical point of view to minimise both cup theft/loss and disruption at POS.

The system will work independently of your organisation's systems and will simply require the customer to have access to a mobile signal or wi-fi to operate – no app or deposit required. Provision has also been made for those customers who can't/won't use their mobiles to participate.

The system will make the deployment of returnable cups frictionless for both your staff members and customers.

I need some real facts and figures to determine whether this system can be financially self-sustaining, without significantly increasing costs to Totnes's cafes and coffee shops or reducing their efficiency.

With this in mind, I'd appreciate it if you could answer the 19 questions below as accurately as possible.

This will help me work out if the concept is feasible on a town-wide basis, and whether government/council funding would be required to implement and maintain it. And if it is feasible, we can then discuss the next steps in removing single-use coffee cups from our town – or at least significantly reducing their usage.

Your answers will help to shape the returnable cup network, ensuring that it's good for all the businesses involved – and our environment.

Hi – I'm Dean Leybourn, a designer and product developer who's fortunate to be able to call Totnes home.

I'd be more than happy to answer your questions and discuss this project further, so please feel free to email me at dean@deptx.org

Just as a final word here, the whole returnable cup thing obviously isn't a new idea, but the idea of a town-wide returnable cup network is.

Returnable cups are only going to be accepted as the norm if the customer experience is put first, making it just as easy for them to return a cup as it is to get it in the first place. Nobody wants to have to take a cup back to where they've just got it from, and nobody wants to walk around all day with a dirty coffee cup for return on another occasion – if and when they remember.

Essentially, what I'm trying to work out at this stage is whether it's feasible (or necessary) to offer a returnable cup supply, washing, collection and delivery service to all the coffee shops and cafes in Totnes, costing business owners approximately the same as they spend on single-use cups. If we all work together, and all the numbers add up, I think we can make it happen – and potentially demonstrate to other towns how they can, too.

I've sourced a returnable cup supplier, so the only thing missing is the washing and delivery element, which I'm prepared to set up and operate, leaving the pros to keep doing what they do best, which is making great coffee!