California entrepreneur invents coffee cups that can revive forests

Forbes

March 29, 2015

Your morning coffee could help give birth to a new generation of trees and plants.  

Reduce. Reuse. Grow., a San Luis Obispo-based startup, has pioneered a new type of coffee cup — one encased with seeds.  After you trash the cup (in a specified bin), the company will ensure that those cups are planted in three nature parks in California.

Given that Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee a day, amounting to 140 billion cups annually, this could create systemic change — that is, if the big coffee brands (ahem, Starbucks ), were to adopt the new technology.
 

Alex Henige, a Cal Poly student who was majoring in Landscape Architecture with a minor in Packaging and Industrial technologies, wanted to see a solution to our growing consumerism.  He picked coffee cups, a daily consumption that was amounting to a massive pile of waste.

But what about recycled cups? Is that not good enough?

The startup argues that recycled cups can be reused twice or thrice but eventually their fibers fall apart, and the waste ends up in a landfill.

“Many of us feel like we’re doing a great deed,” says Henige.  But in reality, throwing the cups in a recycle bin is not solving the problem.

Instead, the Plantable Coffee Cups contain seeds and biodegrade in 180 days completely.  Each cup can grow one tree. The seeds are sourced from Santa Barbara and will be replanted in three of California’s parks — Shasta, Inyo, and Rancho Cuyamaca.

The technology, while designed for coffee cups initially, can be applied to togo containers, corrugated boxes, bio plastics, and other paper products. Coffee cups are merely the starting point.

Coffee vendors argue that cost is a big factor.  The plantable coffee cup costs one cent more than the conventional option, at $.02 per piece.  Though it’s just a penny, for national coffee chains, that can add up quickly.

The eco-startup is not only interested in reviving the environment, but also creating social impact. The company channels some of its revenue through Kiva loans, allowing it to be recycled in a different manner.

The company raised over $20,000 in little over a month through a Kickstarter campaign, enabling them to start manufacturing their new design at a commercial level.  They’ll be headed to Boulder, CO and Marin County first to get these cups in coffee shops.