Facts:
The amount of solid waste created and valuable resources consumed throughout the process of manufacturing and drinking coffee is an escalating problem:

* 58 billion paper cups are thrown away (not recycled) every year
* 20 million trees are cut down in the process of manufacturing paper cups
* Amount of water used in the process is approximately 12 billion gallons

From the betacup website

Tangram and Earthcycle Packaging have worked together on numerous sustainable packaging projects and felt that the Betacup challenge would be a great way to share our knowledge of sustainable packaging and materials with other designers.

View our complete entry and many others here:

Earthcycle Home Compostable Coffee Cup

The Solution

Each year 58 billion take away coffee cups are being wastefully disposed—creating landfill, misallocating resources and supporting a “throw away” culture in the process. Attempts have been made to create a “compostable” cup with limited success. The liner used for the so-called “compostable” cup breaks down only in industrial conditions (140 deg C for 3 weeks) and renders the cup impossible to recycle in the waste paper stream.
The solution that we have created is a Home Compostable coffee cup and lid made from commercially available materials that are recyclable in the waste paper stream and certified home compostable—specifically Palm Fiber pulp for the base cup material, lined with Mater-Bi (r), a moisture barrier/liner made from vegetable starches. Palm Fiber pulp and related products are created and commercialized by Earthcycle Packaging Ltd.
Earthcycle combines technology and the design brilliance of nature to help reduce the waste, pollution, and illogical use of fossil fuels associated with making disposable packaging. We use palm fiber an annually renewable resource to create disposable food packaging which composts in 90 days, turning into a healthy contribution for the soil.

A by-product of the production of palm oil, palm fiber is considered an agricultural waste product, left over from the palm oil harvest, and is usually burned. On the palm oil tree, a large husk, called a Full Fruit Bunch (FFB), grows and contains up to 2,000 fruit. When the fruit is ripe, the FFB is harvested for milling-one palm tree produces fruit two to three times per year. In the milling process, the FFBs are sterilized and stripped of the fruit; the fruit is then pressed in order to extract the crude palm oil (CPO).

After separating the fruit from the FFBs, what remains is called an Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB)-a fibrous mass that is considered waste by the palm millers. In typical mill operations, the EFB is mulched for use as fertilizer or for soil remediation; unfortunately, there still remains an abundance of excess fiber that is burned, causing an environmental hazard.

Instead of burning, we steam, chop and mulch the fiber into a useable form for pulping. The company’s manufacturing operation uses no chemicals, dyes, or bleaches to produce the raw, natural pulp that is then molded into many different shapes and sizes or pressed into sheets for paper. The material is certified home compostable, recyclable, and renewable, and complies with all North American and European food grade standards.

Palm fiber pulp is now made into commercially available food packaging and is used in making paper products. It can easily be made in gauges to support the creation of coffee cups, which would then be lined with Mater-Bi.

Behaviour Changes
Paired with the introduction of the Home Compostable Cup would be an extensive campaign to educate the consumer about the full lifecycle of the product and the need for their participation in helping to “close the loop”. Similar to international plastic bag campaigns, consumers will be rewarded for bringing back a Home Compostable Cup to their local Starbucks by receiving a small price reduction (up to 5 cents) on their order.

Each Starbucks location would be equipped with a collection system called BokashiCycle ™, which would collect the day’s home compostable cup returns along with food scraps and coffee grounds. BokashiCycle is an anaerobic system that ferments food scraps and other compostable waste products through the addition of natural microbes (www.bokashicycle.com). The BokashiCycle bins placed at each Starbucks to would be back hauled when full by one of the many Starbuck’s packaging suppliers—i.e. Bunzl, Sysco—after delivering supplies.

Environmental Impacts
Palm trees give fruit throughout the year, so the material is more than annually renewable. The material has been certified according to the ASTM standard for renewability.
As we are using a starch based liner, we are reducing the use of petroleum based plastics for the moisture barrier.

The Home Compostable Cup is more easily accepted in existing commercial compost facilities and can be composted more quickly and under less intensive (i.e. costly, energy intensive) operations.
The entire cup and lid is also recyclable, so if consumers do not bring back the cup or compost it in their own backyards, they an include the cup and lid in the waste paper recycling stream.

By using an anaerobic system to process the waste, greenhouse gases are reduced .

Next Steps
As both Earthcycle Palm Fiber Pulp and Mater Bi are commercially available, with scalable production facilities, the first step would be to create a prototype. To do this, we would need to find a converter which could take the pulp and form it into a cup and, ideally, have the capability to spray on the liner. The important point to consider is that many converters already exist the North America and Europe to do manufacturing process. There would need to be obvious investments in new capital equipment, but an entire industry would not have to be created.

Last summer Tangram Design worked with DDBCanada and the BC Dairy Foundation developing a series of products for the WeakShop. Well… The commercial for the FoodLift has now hit 175,000 views on YouTube!

Haven’t seen it yet? Check out the hilarity below…

Named one of the twenty-five most influential Canadian women by Chatelaine magazine, host Fanny Kiefer brings her inquisitive mind and sharp insight to in-depth discussions with Canada’s political elite, global influencers, acclaimed authors, visionaries,artists and creators and local changemakers.”

For more information on Fanny Kiefer and Studio 4 please visit www.studio4.ca

Tangram Design founder and industrial designer Robert Johnston has received a 2009 BC Creative Achievement Award.

From the BC Creative Achievement Foundation:

Three talented British Columbians were named today by Premier Gordon Campbell and Keith Mitchell, chair of the British Columbia Achievement Foundation as the recipients of the 2009 BC Creative Achievement Awards for Applied Art and Design

“In applying creativity, ingenuity and innovative designs to functional objects, this year’s recipients demonstrate the talent and strength that exists throughout B.C.’s applied art and design community,” said Campbell. “We are pleased to celebrate the accomplishments of these artists and to highlight the important contributions that applied artists and designers make to the cultural and economic fabric of B.C.”

“Working in wood, glass, fibre, clay, metal in such areas as furniture, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, industrial and fashion design, these artists create work that inspires us all.” Mitchell noted. “Today’s recipients join 20 previous recipients who have been honoured since the inception of the award in 2005, all of whom represent the spectrum of outstanding applied art and design work in BC.”

The recipients were selected by an independent jury chaired by board member Dr. Robert Belton, Dean of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan. The jury was comprised of Sam Carter, artist, craft
and design educator, and associate professor at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design; Lubos Culen, curator, Vernon Public Art Gallery; Alex Feldman, partner, Form3 Design; and Tony Martin, executive director, Comox Valley Art Gallery.
The British Columbia Achievement Foundation is an independent foundation established and endowed by the Province of B.C. in 2003 to celebrate community service, arts, humanities and enterprise.

For more information on the BC Creative Achievement Awards please visit www.bcachievement.com

“The Industrial Design Advantage” is a supplement to the report and demonstrates the value of industrial design to businesses through case studies and data collected through various international design organizations. Tangram principal; designer Robert Johnston assisted the PTC in gathering information for the report through his work with the British Columbia Industrial Design Association.
The PTC report and supplement outlines the Provincial Government’s commitment to develop a plan for the promotion of Industrial Design as a key component of B.C.’s innovation economy.

Download the 11th Premiers Technology Report (PDF)

Download the Supplement “The Industrial Design Advantage” (1.61Mb PDF)

About the Premiers Technology Council
The Premier’s Technology Council was established in August 2001 to advise the government on issues related to the advancement and application of technology in British Columbia. More information about the council and copies of its reports and recommendations are available on the Premier’s website at http://www.gov.bc.ca/premier/ – follow the links to Premier’s Technology Council.

Vision
The Designers Accord envisions a creative community where the principles of sustainable design are seamlessly integrated into all practice and production.

Mission
Our mission is to catalyze innovation throughout the creative community by collectively building our environmental intelligence. For this cause, we advocate inverting the traditional model of competition, and encourage pooling knowledge so that all may benefit and build on marketable and sustainable solutions. We believe this will lead to greater innovation.