However, their practicality, scalability, cost-effectiveness, regulatory compliance and consumer acceptance are important factors to consider for their overall sustainability and viability as a solution.” More innovative ideas range from drinking straws made from agar seaweed, and food bubbles called WikiPearls. These are bite-sized morsels of food surrounded by edible membranes. Hutchins says that while some people would prefer the cup to be sweeter, it depends on the palate of each individual. “We deliberately didn’t make it sweet because we didn’t want to impact the flavour of the coffee,” says Hutchins. Good-Edi also offers a cup coated in chocolate, and plans to soon roll out more options with a wider variety of flavours.

But whatever happens, it already appears that we as a nation aren’t personally going to do anything about non-recyclable mugs, which means the coffee chains themselves need to stop facilitating us. Currently only available at some London offices and University campuses, CupClub, allows coffee consumers to buy their hot drinks in a reusable mug, and then drop it off at a collection point later. The company has collaborated with coffee brands like Lavazza, which has resulted with the introduction of the Cupffee in 18 countries. The company has been served at Wimbledon and has been used by Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi to Brisbane on Earth Day. This traction has led to the company’s initial external investment of EUR 500,000 in a pre-seed funding round from Eleven Ventures, and a EUR 1.3M grant from the European Innovation Council. As long as companies like this continue to take hardline radical approaches to solve the waste crisis, Cupfee will have a future.The idea behind the Cupffee edible coffee cup comes from Miroslav Zapryanov, company founder and CEO at Cupffee. As a student, Zapryanov began considering the environmental ramifications of plastic waste and disposable coffee cups and spent years developing the recipe in his own kitchen. Today, with a specialized machine and production process in place, this idea has materialized into a company capable of producing up to 2.5 million cups per day. The cups are manufactured in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Cupffee is selling its B2B offering to companies across the EU, Middle East, Australia and the US, and has collaborated with coffee major Lavazza. Sustainability is a balance between the economics and the least energy and resource-intensive pathways and the best environmental performance and social outcomes across life cycles and throughout supply chains,” said Meidl.

Depending on the size (110ml for espressos and short drinks, 220ml for cappuccinos, flat whites and tea etc.) the cups have 56kcal or 105kcal. They are also lightweight, coming in at 14g or 26g respectively. Investment to drive market penetration​ That being said, Air New Zealand sells over 8 million cups of coffee per year, which is an awful lot of landfill waste, and so it’s unsurprising they’re looking to reduce their portion. Simply put, they just don’t have the manpower to provide the millions of cups needed to suit Air New Zealand’s demand. However… it just isn’t quite catching on, and for whatever reason, people don’t want to lug a coffee flask around in their bags.Behind the stunt was Etihad Airways, which aims to reduce its own single-use plastic items by 80% in 2022. Because while a mug that is as environmentally friendly as it is tasty is definitely a winner in our eyes, the rest of the world remains unconvinced… Edible Coffee Cups: The Story So Far KFC 2015 So with help from edible coffee cup company Twiice, Air New Zealand began trialing vanilla-flavored biscotti mugs on board their flights. However, as part of a World Earth Day stunt last year,Cupfee was served on a plastic-free, ultra-long-haul flight from Abu Dhabi to Australia, the first environmentally-friendly flight of its kind.