Eat, Drink, and Be Green!

Hello No-Foamers!

Red solo cups may be the quintessential party accessory . Despite their notorioty on college campuses, Asher Roth videos, and convenience store check-out lines, many people also know how wasteful they can be. Despite being a #1 PETE plastic (the most widely recycled plastic), these cups are often thrown away into landfills instead of recycled. It's a shame too because Solo has a line called Bare, made with 20% post-consumer content.

Even better than recycling plastic or paper cups, would be a system that would allow partiers, picnickers, or anyone to cut down on waste and actually eat the cup when they're done!

Well look no further! Check out this link from TreeHugger!

As a way to cut down on trash, clever inventors have created "Jelloware" cups that can be eaten or composted after consuming the beverage inside. They won a design competition by Gowanus Studio Space by beating out all the other Jell-o mold entries.

The cups are aesthetically pleasing, with cute designs on the sides (see this blog, Yanko Design for more pictures). But more importantly, they are made out of agar agar, which they say is a seaweed extract. As an added bonus, you can bury them in your garden because the seaweed extract is good at nurturing plants! The company designed them to be thrown on the ground. But unlike Dixie, Solo, or other cups who will just sit in mass piles of debris at street festivals and other gatherings, these "thrown away" cups will be aiding your garden or yard.

They even come in swanky flavors!

So to sum it all up...these cups are great because they naturally biodegrade: unlike styrofoam which will take 500+ years to breakdown and even then is not fully biodegraded. They don't create more trash, because they serve multiple purposes. They are well-designed and pleasing to look at, encouraging people to use them. Now, I'm not sure how the creators at The Way We See The World are planning on distributing them or when, but hopefully they will spark peoples' creativity.

I know I want to attempt making my own glasses for my next picnik or party! Mmmmm, jell-o plates would be awfully tasty.

-NFC