Green coffee cups that can be planted

Abstract: drink a cup of coffee plant a tree can grow a coffee cup Plantable Coffee Cup from the outside, this is an ordinary paper coffee cup is not much different from other paper cups, but on closer inspection, there are many irregular protrusions on its surface, not to prevent slippage, but to put seeds into living plants.

Have a cup of coffee

Plant a tree

A plantable coffee cup

Plantable Coffee Cup

Judging from the appearance,

This is an ordinary paper coffee cup.

It's not much different from other paper cups.

But watch carefully.

You'll find its surface.

There are a lot of irregular bulges.

It's not about anti-skid.

But living plant seeds.

Mix the seeds into a paper cup

This wonderful idea comes from

A senior at California State University of Technology

Alex Henige

Like most Americans, Alex has a penchant for coffee and has a cup in a coffee shop almost every day, but over a long period of time, he is curious about the whereabouts of paper coffee cups that people throw away at will.

He saw people throw cups into the dustbin.

But I don't know where they went.

After a field visit with the garbage truck

He was deeply shocked by what he saw.

And the staff at the garbage disposal station told him:

Indegradable rubbish

Or incineration.

Or deep landfill.

...

Filled with righteous indignation, he returned to school

Checked the relevant information on the Internet.

But it turned out to be even more disappointing.

Every day, Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee

Despite all efforts to recycle

Nearly 100 billion paper cups are discarded every year.

If you look at the whole world, you can imagine the result.

Making a cup produces 35 grams of carbon dioxide.

But 146 billion paper cups are discarded at will every year.

How to discard useless coffee cups

Become a "baby" that is beneficial to the environment.

It became a problem that he urgently needed to solve.

The first thing that came to mind was:

Use paper products that can be degraded rapidly

Make coffee cups

After several months of experiments with his partners, he successfully developed paper products that could be completely degraded in the natural environment.

Not only that.

He also worked with a local paper manufacturer.

Innovatively blend the seeds of flowers and trees

Seeds are selected according to local characteristics.

And the biodegradable cup body made of special pulp

It can guarantee the seeds of the plant.

Under a high-calorie hot drink

Not to be destroyed!

The process of making a cup is quite simple.

Cut out the body of the cup

The bottom of the cup is glued and compacted with edible grade glue.

The half of the cup shows the local characteristics with a map of each state.

In the lower part, the plant species are marked in words.

This cup is dominated by California wildflowers.

At the bottom of the cup, the planting steps are explained intimately.

First, take the cup apart, soak it in water for 5 minutes, and bury it in the soil.

All that's left is to wait for the seeds to break out of the ground.

Even if you choose not to plant cups,

Then just tear it up.

Throw it into the earth.

180 days at the latest

It will be completely degraded in the natural environment.

Become fertilizer for other plants

It is worth noting that

Each cup contains a tree species.

And a tree in 40 years

Can absorb at least one ton of carbon dioxide

A cup, a tree.

The 146 billion paper cups we throw away every year

It can be in another form.

Into a green lung to preserve the earth.

Now that Alex is stepping up iterations to update his paper cups and is already in contact with well-known coffee chains such as Starbucks, his goal is to develop a mature business model of biodegradable paper cups that will eventually reduce the cost of plantable cups to 20 cents or less.

We make rubbish every day.

But some rubbish could have been avoided.

If such an 'ordinary' cup

It can change the way people look at garbage.

It's a great satisfaction for me.

-- Alex Henige