Edible Cups Let You Throw One Back Without Creating Waste | HuffPost Good News - Action News
Home WebMail Tuesday, November 5, 2024, 01:05 AM | Calgary | 1.6°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2016-06-16T17:04:11Z | Updated: 2016-06-16T17:04:11Z

Now you can have your drink -- and eat it, too.

Tableware company Loliware sells disposable cups that are both biodegradable and edible -- or in their words, biodegr(edible).

The idea is that by creating tableware that can be eaten -- or that will quickly degrade if thrown out, according to their website -- consumers can avoid the usual waste that comes from trashing plastic cups at the end of a party.

"You can throw them in the grass or disintegrate them in a matter of minutes with hot water," co-founder Chelsea Briganti told the Guardian . "For every cup eaten, we are saving a plastic cup from entering the landfill. Billions of plastic cups are entering the landfill every year. If Loliware replaces even a small percentage, that would have far-reaching impact."

Plastics are a major problem: An estimated 8 million tons of plastics leak into the ocean each year, meaning the oceans may contain more plastic than fish by 2050 .

Loliware cups avoid this waste issue by being compostable, degrading into soil within 60 days , according to Food & Wine. If you decide to be a litterbug and throw the cup outside, it will still quickly break down , according to Fast Company.

"If it happens to end up in a stream or a waterway where it's not supposed to, it's going to break down just like a banana peel would if it ends up in a stream," co-founder Leigh Ann Tucker told Fast Company . "That is a big step up from other corn-based bioplastics that are actually still a huge issue in waterways."

The cups are made from seaweed and organic sweeteners, so theyre entirely edible, according to the website . They're available in a variety of flavors, from Citrus to Cherry to Matcha Green Tea, so you can pair them with your drink of choice -- and according to Yahoo, they taste like artisan Fruit Roll Up .

The founders first came up with the idea for the cups in 2010, when they entered a competition for Jell-O that asked contestants to use gelatin to create original -- and edible -- designs, reports Yahoo . After launching a modest $10,000 Kickstarter campaign in 2011, they finally hit it big with a $600,000 investment from Shark Tank in 2015, according to Sustainable Brands .

Their goal for the future is to to expand to other types of edible tableware, according to their website , from different cups to straws to edible water bottles.

Loliware is not the only edible cup-game in town: A recent cookie-cup trend has Instagram users worldwide salivating, serving coffee or milk in cookie dough cups.

At a price of $15.99 for a pack of four Loliware cups , a biodegr(edible) cocktail party doesn't come cheap. But if you want to keep your fourth of July celebrations eco-friendly, their red and white cups may be the way to go.