A creative, San Luis Obispo, Calif., USA-based company called Reduce. Reuse. Grow. has designed a coffee cup that is not only biodegradable, but even has seeds in its walls so that it can be planted and grown. The cups, which are currently part of a Kickstarter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) campaign, will have seeds embedded in their walls based on their locations. 

Participating stores will encourage people to plant the cups themselves or to return them to be planted by the company.

According to Reduce. Reuse. Grow., Americans discard more than 146 billion cups from coffee consumption annually. "Even when we think we are recycling and doing a good deed, the paper itself within these products can only be reused two to three times before the fibers are unusable and discarded into local landfills without consumer's knowing. It’s time to consumer smarter..." the company says. 

 

 

Reduce. Reuse. Grow. further explains that "we have developed a post-consumer paper based cup which will be able to extract more than a ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually, once planted. "We have taken those fibers from local recycling centers, which would usually be too rough to implement back into a packaging product, and created a cup that we are happy to truly name the most eco-friendly disposable coffee cup. If you decide to throw away and not plant, no problem. The cup is compost certified and will be able to biodegrade within 180 days, leaving the seeds and cup itself to turn into nutrients for other plants to enjoy."

Consumers drink their coffee from the coffee shop. If they choose to take the cup with them, they can plant it in several scenarios based off of the seed variety embedded within the cup. They can see the seed variety displayed on the front of the cup as well as planting instructions on the bottom of the cup. Unravel the cup, soak in water for 5 min. and watch it grow. 

If a consumer decides to discard the cup, he or she can place it in a special trash can where Reduce. Reuse. Grow. (or third parties such as the Boy Scouts, National Parks and Forests, community members, landscape companies, non-profits, etc.) can come in and take the cups for local reforestation purposes. 

 

Reforestation locations can be anything from small community projects to state or national parks where fires, over grazing, or other habitat destruction has happened and additional native plantings are needed to replenish those areas.

More information is available online.