Biodegradable cups! Great, no? Except who would have thought that the credit for these would go to the US Navy & Army?
The Biodegradable Coffee Cups were developed so that soldiers could just toss the cups off the boats without harming the marine life. Good idea. But the cups also had to be good enough not to burn hands – the likely delimma in creating the cups in the first place. Oh, and they had to be brown so as not to be visible to enemy spies. Paranoid, perhaps.
Developed by Clovernook Center and International Paper, the cups are what I hope will be taken up by all global coffee houses, especially Starbucks. No news on this front yet, not even a hint. I personally try to use my personal cup whenever possible – it keeps it much hotter and comes guilt free. Well, mostly. I am still buying coffee, after all. :)
Interesting piece over in the comments (I love to read comments!) – Why can’t the soldiers just use the folding cups common to earlier in the century? No trees need be cut down in the first place.
About these “Navy-standard” biodegradable cups…I’m researching paper coffee cups for my favorite coffee place who still uses styrofoam -but is willing to look into paper. Any ideas on how to buy them?
We have no idea, but I guess contacting International Paper would be a good start. Let us know if you find out where to get them.
You can have restaurants contact the Green Restaurant Association to help them with cups and other environmental improvements.
http://www.dinegreen.com or 858 452-7378
Treecycle do a range of biodegradable fibre cups – see link
http://www.treecycle.com/biodegradable.html
These are made from sugarcane pulp, and are tree-free too.
They also do a range of corn and PLA plastic ware.
These are not the new US cups, but I would reccomend them.
I have tried these cups. They leak and after six months in the compost, I had a dirty paper cup. I would stick with the foam cups, they are at least recycleable.