Sustainable Friday

Posted on: 2016-10-14 10:30 AM

Pokito
 
Andrew Brooks recently came up with a product called 'Pokito' which could serve as a solution to the mountains of waste produced by disposable coffee cups. Brooks came up with the idea of creating a more sustainable coffee cup after witnessing entire forests being chopped down to produce paper cups. This spurred him to design a reusable cup that is not only sustainable but also a practical alternative to disposable coffee cups.
 
Pokito is a reusable coffee cup that collapses down into a 4.5 cm container when not in use. This allows consumers to easily stow their coffee cup in their pocket, bag or briefcase until they need to use it. When fully extended, the flexible cup can hold up to 475 ml of hot or cold liquid at a time. The cup's high-heat resistant design and spill-proof lid also help to make it a safe and practical alternative to paper coffee cups.
 
Planttrash
 
This plantable coffee cup allows you to get your caffeine boost while helping the environment at the same time. From Reduce. Reuse. Grow., the eco-friendly coffee cups help local communities with reforestation. The cup is embedded with California-native seeds right in its packaging material. Planting instructions are also listed on the bottom of the container.
 
Currently seeking finances on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, the plantable coffee cup is described as a world first. The product provides an environmental solution to the 146 billion to-go coffee cups that end up in landfills every year. Even if you choose not to plant the cup, the packaging is biodegradable. This means it will turn into compost and break down completely within 180 days. Instead of becoming a new tree, the seeds will turn into nutrients for other plant life.
 
CupLoader
 
The more devices and gadgets we have, the more we need to recycle energy. With entrepreneurial thinking, Torben Berger, Dom Heinrich, Mark Hollering, Martin Biela and Christian Endecott of McCANN Worldgroup - MRM//McCANN created the CupLoader. The CupLoader is being branded as "The first cup of coffee with a positive effect." This travel mug uses the heat of coffee and turns it into electrical energy, which allows us to charge our mobile devices on the go.
 
As co-founder Dom Heinrich says, "We want to integrate the CupLoader into our daily lives. The coffee houses can sell the CupLoader together with their own products. The product itself is small and light, allowing us to carry it everywhere." At the same time, the CupLoader can replace the paper cup we receive from coffee houses, this way not only energy can be saved but also paper production and waste can be reduced.
 
Coffee is universal, healthy, habitual and social -- and now it even has the potential to be eco-friendly. CupLoader can be introduced into daily lives to help make the world a little bit better with each cup of coffee. The Team is currently working together with a coffee brand to launch the product by the end of 2015 as a limited edition.
 
Frugalpac
 
Frugalpac recently announced that it has developed a recyclable paperboard coffee cup that can help cut down on the amount of waste attributed to disposable cups. While paperboard coffee cups are a convenient take-out solution, these non-recyclable cups contribute to a great deal of waste. Now there may be a new option for brands interested in reducing coffee cup waste.
 
The new paperboard coffee cups designed by Frugalpac are made from recycled paper that can be reused by paper recycling mills. Unlike ordinary coffee cups, the recyclable paperboard cups feature a thin plastic liner that is free from added chemicals and only lightly glued in place. This design allows the liner to be separated from the cup during the recycling process so that the cup can be recycled.
 
Both cost-effective and eco-friendly, Frugalpac's new cups could be the solution to reducing coffee cup waste worldwide.