How vital is that coffee cup for your morning? Trust me, you’re not alone. Morning coffee is now an American tradition that’s almost as strong as apple pie. For many of us, coffee is what makes us functional enough to face our workdays and daily tasks.
However, there’s a cost. And no, it’s not the just the coffee plants that are suffering. The entire world is affected. In the US alone we use and toss 16 billion coffee cups. This eventually adds up to almost 6.5 million trees killed annually to supply this demand.
It’s criminally unsustainable to keep following this production cycle.
But what can you do?
THERE IS NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN ACTUALLY CHANGE THIS
Project Reduce Reuse Grow is aiming to turn our coffee cups into a proactive solution that will potentially lead to more green space in our cities and could reduce the strain caused by CO2 accumulation.
More importantly, this project is looking to counteract the massive environmental impact caused by our excessive use of paper coffee cups. Think about it, there’s a high chance you may have even bought one this morning and are enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee or tea this very instant.
This project, created by Alex Henige (a senior at California Polytechnic State University), has recently started a Kickstarter page to fund this amazing project.
The idea? Simply make coffee cups that are not only biodegradable, but also hold the seeds for future trees.
They plan to do this by encouraging coffee customers to plant the cups wherever they wanted. Even if people do not have time to plant these cups, there’s still a contingency plan.
According to the product bio, it only takes 180 days for these cups to biodegrade down to nothing. Meaning that cups that end up in the landfill or are inconsiderately tossed anywhere just simply disappear.
But wait, there’s more! These unique cups actually hold the seeds and the necessary nutrients they need to grow into trees.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS
Reduce Reuse Grow plans to use fibers from local recycling centers, although typically considered too rough for consumer product use, and converted them to 100% biodegradable material.
The cup is compost certified and will biodegrade into the vital nutrients most plants need to thrive. Even if the cups are not properly planted, they still biodegrade into nutrients and minerals that could be used by other plants.
Besides injecting a bit more green into our cities, Henige hopes that if this project takes off and is adopted by major coffee chains like Starbucks, there will be a palpable environmental milestone that can be reached.
The dream? To see over a ton of CO2 extracted annually out of the atmosphere by the trees held within these biodegradable cups.
Fortunately, Henige is not alone. As of this moment, Reduce Reuse Grow surpassed its ten thousand dollar kickstarter goal.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to see these amazing cups bearing the logos of our major coffee and tea sellers.
If you’re looking for more information on how these cups work, where to plant them, and how to promote their use in your community, I encourage you to visit Reduce Reuse Grow as soon as possible.
