ModernFarmer.com has posted on a pretty sweet concept that needs to become a widespread reality. Do you know that America consumes 400 million coffees per day? Or 146 billion coffee cups of coffee per year. That’s a lot of coffee, and a good amount of that coffee is served up in disposable cups. Until this point, there have been few purported solutions, and fewer honest to goodness attempts at figuring out how to control the waste that ends up in our landfills.
One possible solution that is gaining traction is the “plantable coffee cup”. Don’t laugh, it’s a real concept that could lead to an entirely different way of thinking when it comes to recycling/composting.
The way it works is that when the consumer is through with his or her coffee, the cup can be rolled out and planted. The cup is made from biodegradable materials… and seeds! From growing trees to wild flowers, the cups suddenly go from an earth-unfriendly problem to a green solution.
Reuse. Reduce. Grow. launched a Kickstarter campaign that has already been (over) funded. Check out the video below, and see how this ingenious coffee cup is able to biodegrade in 180 days and produce flowers and trees to boot. No more landfill, no more longterm litter. Even if the customer chooses not to plant the cup, there will be special waste bins (starting in California), where the cups can be collected and planted by another party. Customers can even post and track where the cups are going online.
If you want to follow the progress of Reuse. Reduce. Grow., simply check out their Facebook page, and then cross your fingers that these cups make it to a coffee shop near you.
Now, can we figure out the lids?