Restaurants and cafes like McDonald’s and Starbuck’s use over 250 billion paper cups every year. In fact, they’re one of the biggest sources of unrecyclable goods. But if you’ve ever owned an eatery, you probably know how difficult it is to find a more environmentally-friendly alternative for to-go cups. Not only are you looking for something more eco-friendly, but you’re going to want something that’s not too expensive and, most of all, will still function well.
Several experts decided to come together to figure out a better alternative to the paper coffee cups many of us use on a daily basis. In the end, they were successful.
It all started when NextGen Consortium, a McDonald’s- and Starbucks-led global alliance, decided to hold an open design competition called NextGen Cup Challenge. 480 inventor teams came up with unique, designs for not just cups but also for sleeves, straws, lids, and other related products. The catch was that each design must be recyclable, biodegradable, reusable, and the materials used to construct the products must be readily available, so it can eventually be mass-produced.
In February 2019, NextGen Consortium announced a dozen winners, who would be sharing a million-dollar prize. In addition to the monetary prize, the winners received support from NextGen Consortium members such as Nestle, Wendy’s, and more.
The winners of the NextGen Consortium Challenge included compostable cups like Earth Cup by European manufacturer C.E.E R. SCHISLER and help from Sun Chemical, non-polyethylene inks and coatings for coffee cups by U.S.-based Sun Chemical Corporation, and innovative cup liners from Netherlands- and Finland-based Comombler Group.
And, in February 2020, they started an experimental trial at some independently-owned, California-based coffee shops.
During one experiment, certain shops in Palo Alto and San Francisco were able to purchase hot beverages in reusable cups mostly constructed of recycled plastic. On these cups were QR codes, so they could each be tracked. Once empty, the customers were instructed to toss their cups in special containers placed at certain locations around their locality. This way, the collected cups could later be picked up, washed, and reused by companies, saving a significant amount of waste. The whole point of having QR codes placed on the cups was to see how many people would actually follow through with the instructions.
Another test was conducted in Oakland, California, but instead of reusable cups, customers got to test out compostable, recyclable, non-reusable cups without QR codes.
These two pilot projects will help determine which type of environmentally-friendly coffee cup design will be the most successful to implement overall. Hopefully, results on these two experiments will be publicly posted.
For now, check out the video below for more information on the biodegradable cup alternatives!
