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A Crowd-Funded Startup Is Making a Coffee Cup That Can Be Eaten (bloomberg.com) 141

Posted by BeauHD from the edibleware-innovation dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A trash can overflowing with disposable drink cups is an all-too-familiar sight outside any high-traffic cafe or fast-food joint. It was during a lunch-time walk in Melbourne that colleagues Aniyo Rahebi and Catherine Hutchins passed by several such eyesores and decided to combat the piles of waste. A few months later they arrived at an idea: a to-go cup that can be eaten. After hundreds of hours in the kitchen refining their concept, the duo took it to market. Their startup Good-Edi now offers an edible, biodegradable, plastic-free alternative to the standard polyethylene-lined paper cups used for coffee that largely end up in landfills or gets incinerated.

The company raised about $98,000 through a crowd-funding site in 2021, and its baking team currently produces about 500 cups a day for clients across Australia, including coffee shops, roasteries and concert venues, from a facility in a suburb of Melbourne. Good-Edi aims to boost output and expand sales internationally this year. The world goes through more than 250 billion plastic-lined paper drink cups every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Only about 1% of those cups are recycled. Good-Edi says about 2.7 million disposable cups find their way to landfills each day in Australia.

Good-Edi's product works for both for hot drinks like coffee and tea as well as cold drinks. After about 250 recipe adjustments, the founders settled on a blend of rye flour, wheat bran, oat bran, sugar, salt, coconut oil and water. They say their container stays crispy holding a hot cup of joe for about 40 minutes and won't leak a cold beverage for about eight hours. For Hutchins and Rahebi, who have a combined 20 years experience in the food-processing and packaging sectors, Good-Edi is still a side hustle. They are banking on shifting consumer sentiment and a beverage industry under pressure to offer more sustainable to-go options to drive sales and compensate for the fact that their containers can increase the cost of a cup of takeaway coffee by A$1. "Will coffee drinkers be keen to gobble up the company's innovation, if it doesn't feel like a treat?" asks a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter that says the cup tasted like an unsweetened wheat biscuit.
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A Crowd-Funded Startup Is Making a Coffee Cup That Can Be Eaten More

A Crowd-Funded Startup Is Making a Coffee Cup That Can Be Eaten

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  • Do you end up with a soggy mess all over your table?

    • Re:and what happens after 40 minutes? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Vomitgod ( 6659552 ) on Friday May 19, 2023 @11:42PM (#63536329)

      Lasts to 8 hours according to their website

      • If it lasts more than 4 hours, you should contact a doctor.

    • You'd better not let your drink sit too long!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )

      When you eat it, it makes a soggy mess in the toilet (if you make it there in time).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      My guess is that:
      a) It will not last 40 minutes because many companies serve tea and coffee flesh-burning hot.
      b) since it contains sugar, it will interfere with the taste and make diabetic use unviable.

      This is a good try but I'd suggest a more practical solution/use case is single-use containers like the Styrofoam or plastic that many restaurants had to change to during the pandemic. Because these containers aren't served scalding hot, and only need to be thick enough to last maybe an hour on a take-out tri

  • Keeping it clean (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Friday May 19, 2023 @11:42PM (#63536327) Homepage

    So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through, set it in the cup holder, take it to the (home) office, set it on the car while I unlock my door, then take it to my desk where it sits for an hour or so until I'm done drinking it. My hands that hold this cup have been touching the steering wheel, door knobs, car keys, and who knows what else, in between holding this cup. And after all that, I'm supposed to eat the cup? Hmmm...

    • So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through, set it in the cup holder, take it to the (home) office, set it on the car while I unlock my door, then take it to my desk where it sits for an hour or so until I'm done drinking it. My hands that hold this cup have been touching the steering wheel, door knobs, car keys, and who knows what else, in between holding this cup. And after all that, I'm supposed to eat the cup? Hmmm...

      It might take sense to cover the edible cup with a disposal plastic cup you can fondle all day.

      I too have no idea where my hands have been all day.

      • Beer has stubbie-holders.

        Teapots have tea-cosies.

        Surely someone can come up with a washable accessory that sheathes one's edible cup?

        • Surely someone can come up with a washable accessory that sheathes one's edible cup?

          Introducing... the Cup Condom.

        • Surely someone can come up with a washable accessory that sheathes one's edible cup?

          We have them already, it's called a "cup".

          What is the point of the edible cup if I need to put it in another cup?

          I haven't heard of a "stubbie holder" before but a quick search of the web tells me this is what I've known as a "koozie". A koozie isn't just for beer though, it seems to be a general term for any beverage that comes in a bottle, can, or similar container. The local coffee shops offer disposable koozies for their cups to make it more comfortable to hold the thin paper cups with boiling hot liq

          • some history, I am from Melbourne, where this comes from:
            • Recyclers complained that the particular liquid-proof wax on cardboard made it unsuitable for recovering the paper.
            • Travel mugs emerged with brands such as KeepCup [keepcup.com] that would fit in an espresso machine.
            • Covid happened and during lockdown, authorities banned BYO cups.

            So this initiative about sanitation but also about reducing landfill and saving a tree. I can't say I'd be eating this but at least it should be biodegradable in one's compost heap on t

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by drnb ( 2434720 )

            Surely someone can come up with a washable accessory that sheathes one's edible cup?

            We have them already, it's called a "cup".

            But if you call it a cup you are locked into a low end commodity market. You need to call it, position it, as something else so you can charge more for it.

            What is the point of the edible cup if I need to put it in another cup?

            A snack after a coffee.

        • its already there in the form of an insulated coffee cup you can buy and take to the coffee shop for filling

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tragedy ( 27079 )

          Surely someone can come up with a washable accessory that sheathes one's edible cup?

          At that point, you might as well just make the washable accessory water-tight and then you can leave the edible cup out altogether and just use the re-usable cup you just re-invented.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by drnb ( 2434720 )

          Surely someone can come up with a washable accessory that sheathes one's edible cup?

          Make sure it compatible with those holders in the cars

      • It might take sense to cover the edible cup with a disposal plastic cup you can fondle all day.

        I too have no idea where my hands have been all day.

        It might make even more sense to not use these in drive-throughs. Use them in places where people sit down.

        PS: Not every country is full of people who live and eat in their cars.

    • So when you get your doughnut with your coffee when you go to work you always wash your hands before you eat the doughnut, because you don't know what you have touched on the way. And you have never seen anyone diving while eating a pastry and drinking a beverage they just bought. No one ever eats anything outside their house without washing their hands first ever.

      How hard is it to hold your breath from when you leave you living space until you get back home, since you might breath in someone other person'

      • Actually, I do wash my hands. And no, I don't set that gooey, delicious doughnut on the roof of my car, or in a cupholder. It is transported in a bag or a box, protecting it from picking up random bits of dirt and scum from everything it touches.

        There are extremes when it comes to hygiene. Holding your breath would be such an extreme. Washing your hands before picking up food, is not.

    • And after all that, I'm supposed to eat the cup? Hmmm...

      Yes. That’s just natures pepper.

    • Re:Keeping it clean (Score:5, Funny)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday May 20, 2023 @01:57AM (#63536529)

      So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through, set it in the cup holder, take it to the (home) office, set it on the car while I unlock my door, then take it to my desk where it sits for an hour or so until I'm done drinking it. My hands that hold this cup have been touching the steering wheel, door knobs, car keys, and who knows what else, in between holding this cup. And after all that, I'm supposed to eat the cup? Hmmm...

      What if all those other things were edible too?

    • So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through, set it in the cup holder, take it to the (home) office, set it on the car while I unlock my door, then take it to my desk where it sits for an hour or so until I'm done drinking it.

      I don't think your imaginary-usage scenario matches the scenario where people are actually using these.

      Me? I think it will fail because I want my biscuits WITH my coffee, not after it.

      • I don't think your imaginary-usage scenario matches the scenario where people are actually using these.

        Help me out here, what scenario better matches what people will actually do with these edible cups? Is that scenario more sanitary?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Duds ( 100634 )

      It's ok, they'll put the edible one inside a standard to go cup.

      I wish I were kidding but we live in a world where they wrap paper straws in plastic.

    • So negative... Feed it to the birds, dog, use it as fertilizer, dissolve it in water (throw it in the pond if you like.) So many options...

    • So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through

      This problem you are having is peak American.

      • My scenario was hypothetical. Normally I brew my own coffee. But Starbucks is a very popular place for a lot of people.

        If not for takeout, what scenario does it make sense to use an edible cup? If I'm making my own coffee at home or in the office, I use a permanent, washable mug. There's no waste generated by disposable cups. If you're worried about the environment (and therefore a potential customer for these edible cups) then stop using those disposable cups and switch to ceramic or metal!

    • Special people like you who like to nurse their cold, gross coffee for days on end can bring their own reusable cup. There, problem solved, now there's no more reason to shit on a valid 99.99% solution to a pollution problem just because of some bullshit 0.01% scenario that you made up just to be contrarian, or heard about on Fox News, or try and start some dumb culture war, or got paid by your Russian troll farm overlords for to seed discontent, or whatever stupid end goal you have here.

      If you keep on i

      • Your response is pure flamebait, but for others who might read this thread, I'll reply.

        What is the target demographic for edible cups? It's people who currently use disposable cups, right? If you're using a metal or ceramic mug, as you would at home or at the office, what's the point of switching to edible? You're already reusing your mug hundreds or thousands of times, there is no problem with disposable waste.

        So what does that leave us with? Where are disposable cups used? They are primarily used for *tak

    • So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through

      Why do you like shitty coffee? Vacuum thermoses and home coffeemakers both exist. That's the real problem with this invention. It only serves people who have proven they give zero shits about their coffee, you think they care about the environment? They don't even care about the environment inside their mouth.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        When you think about how much take away coffee is sold, that's hardly a design flaw.

        • The people it's supposed to be for are not going to want to pay for it. That's not a design flaw, it's a critical fault in the business plan. Unless their plan is to have them mandated and then people make coffee at home instead, I suppose.

      • My scenario was hypothetical, I normally brew my own coffee, using a metal mug, which I reuse hundreds of times.

        But what would be the point of an edible cup, for somebody like me, who brews in a reusable cup? Zero. Clearly, this product is aimed at replacing disposable cups. And where are disposable cups used? When buying coffee for takeout.

        Is there some other scenario where it would make sense to go with edible cups? Do you think these cups will actually be *tasty*? I doubt it!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PJ6 ( 1151747 )

      So, I pick up my coffee in the drive through, set it in the cup holder, take it to the (home) office, set it on the car while I unlock my door, then take it to my desk where it sits for an hour or so until I'm done drinking it. My hands that hold this cup have been touching the steering wheel, door knobs, car keys, and who knows what else, in between holding this cup. And after all that, I'm supposed to eat the cup? Hmmm...

      Not that I'm defending it, but at the ice cream place I got to, cones come with paper sleeves around the part you touch which you have to peel off to finish eating them. They use a spot of sugar for the glue.

    • That is why they put this edible cup inside a plastic cup to keep it clean. Eat the edible cup and throw away the plas... ... wait ... something wrong here ...
  • You can even eat the dishes!

  • I, for one, welcome our new edible coffee cup overlords!

  • Any coffee cup can be eaten (Score:5, Funny)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday May 20, 2023 @12:12AM (#63536377)
    if you're brave enough.

    • if you're brave enough.

      I’ll pass. It.

    • Paper cups are mostly cellulose. You should be fine. It would help if you had some extra bacteria to break cellulose down into sugars. So, cups aren't the problem. People's digestion systems are.

  • Humans aren't the only things that are going to eat it. In order to prevent anything else from eating it, you'd need to put the edible cups into wasteful packaging.

    • Humans aren't the only things that are going to eat it. In order to prevent anything else from eating it, you'd need to put the edible cups into wasteful packaging.

      Urban vermin already have plenty of food scraps to eat. Even if every disposable cap got replaced next week (they won't) it would make a minimal difference compared to the edible waste already discarded every day in any big city.

      Or did you mean the cups would get eaten by rodents in the cafe before use? If there's a rodent problem, those rodents will eat regular cardboard cups anyway, or the packets of sugar, or creamer, or whatever else is in the pantry of a cafe.

      Al that being said, I've used (and eaten) t

  • common sense (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kid_wonder ( 21480 ) <public@kscottkle i n . c om> on Saturday May 20, 2023 @12:41AM (#63536401) Homepage

    look, i don't drink coffee or go to coffee shops but if you bring your own cup will they fill it? if not, do they sell reusable cups they will refill - figure they might want to match those stupid sizes they have.

    seems a bit easier and you don't have to use up our food supply - 2.7 mil in Australia, have to do the calcs for the planet but not a very sustainable solution ... maybe when they go bk they can ship their cups to a place that needs food.

    • I've seen people bring coffee cups into cafes and they fill it.

      I don't know if all cafes are willing to do it. I don't see why they would object.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfm3 ( 830843 )
      I bring my own mug all the time, but it does vary by shop whether they will fill it or not. Most of the chain places won't due to policy, but the smaller locally owned cafes generally will.
    • They stopped doing this during the recent pandemic you might have heard about. I don't know if customer-supplied cups are a thing again yet.

  • That idea's DOA.

  • ...I massively respect the genius who invented edible panties.

  • 8 hrs is more than enough for it to last

  • I wouldn't want to compromise on the taste of my coffee.

    • Not to mention Allergens. I have a family member who would be throwing up within 30 minutes if they drank coffee out of this cup; super sensitive wheat allergy. I doubt this will catch on, but if it does, with that ingredient list, a lot of people are going to have a bad day the first time they encounter one of these cups.
  • I haven't seen any of the cafés here sell coffee or any other beverage in a disposable cup. You get plastic cups for alcoholic drinks if there's a big festival because broken glass but that's about it. I doubt it'd be hard to simply ban disposable cups. It'd just be a small cultural shift, probably for the better: I mean, who doesn't want to sit with friends in or outside a café & watch the world go by while they drink? Also, it doesn't taste of plastic either. If people really do want to drin
  • This is a good idea. I drink 3-12 cups of coffee / day. If I am out and about, I try to avoid using disposable cups. I use mugs at Paneras and other companies. This would be good for starbucks or one of the many many coffee shops around washington state.
  • Let them show up with the mug you gave them to get their coffee. They will do it.

  • I haven't read every comment, but it's a near certainty no one mentioned the real problem with this effort. People. These folks have now spent time, money, and resources trying to come up with something which is only needed because of the laziness of people.

    Apparently it's too difficult for the smartest animal on the planet to put their trash in a bin because of the complexity in doing so. Maybe we need to train humans to be as smart as crows in picking up trash [duckduckgo.com]. Then again, what the crows are doing is th

    • How did the Old Crow bottle label miss the incredible marketing impact of a crow with a cigarette in its mouth? I was awakened by crow wars a couple of days ago, so maybe they need something to calm them down. I should write a movie script that plagiarizes the proven impact of "Birdemic: Shock and Terror" (possibly the worst film ever made), with the added element of nicotine addicted crows attacking people in Sweden for their cigarettes. Why did I click that link?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      I think you're missing a virtue of this idea. Instead of spending the materials and energy on making what is essentially destined to be a piece of garbage (a paper cup) they could instead be expending materials and energy on something that will feed and hopefully be enjoyed by someone.

  • Obesity (Score:3)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Saturday May 20, 2023 @06:48AM (#63536893) Homepage Journal

    What Westerners need is another hundred calories in their jumbo double-sweet mocha latte.

    For the Planet!

  • Where's the sugar free version? And how do the rest of the ingredients mess with the taste of coffee?

  • Like something that can go into a dishwasher.

  • Carry a small messenger bag. Get a spill proof mug with a lanyard, keep it in the bag. When you're out and want a drink, take out your mug. When you're done, put it away. You'll save money and help the environment.

  • What's the RDA for coffee cups?

    Will they have to print nutrition information on the side of every cup? Keep them wrapped in plastic before serving? (for food safety).

    This seems like the very definition of "processed food", although if it's filled with a 1000 calorie latte sugar bomb, it likely won't be the biggest problem.

    All I can say is, edible or not, I'm not eating it.

  • Once, anyway...

    The question is: who really wants to eat their disposable cup? Not many, I don't think...

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