Drink it an eat it – Yes, you heard that right. It is a cup that you can actually eat and it comes in different flavours too.
This edible cup is not a new concept. The reason behind the invention is to revolutionise the use of plastic and reduce the number of disposable cups into the landfills. With such, the team behind edible cup called it biodegr(edible) which simply means biodegradable and edible.
The edible cup from Brooklyn based startup Loliware was launched in March 2015 by Chelsea Briganti and Leigh Ann Tucker.
In many events, a disposable plastic cup would usually be the choice of usage and by the end of the day it would be tossed, and could you have guessed the harm that it could bring to Mother Earth? [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
It was estimated that every year, five hundred million of disposable cups that enter the landfill would not biodegrade. With this in mind, the goal of the duo is to create a full set of tableware that is both edible and biodegradable from different cups to straws to edible water bottles.
The material used in the edible cup is vegan and made from six types of ingredients. Agar, being the main component is a gelatine that is derived from seaweed.
Most often, gelatine is non-vegan as it is a protein that is derived from boiling bones, tendons, skin and ligament with water that is obtained from pigs or cow. The edible cup comes in different flavours ranging from cherry to citrus and even to matcha green tea.
With this, you can easily pair up desserts or alcoholic drinks to the ‘cup’ of your choice. In the website (https://www.loliware.com/), there is a ‘serving inspiration’ corner for you to be inspired and make your own bright and fun drink!
The edible cups are known to be able to hold a drink for more than 24 hours with a shelf-life of three months. The longer the cups are being dried, the harder it would become.
They are fully biodegradable after their usage or if eaten. Even if it does end up in a stream or waterway, the cup would still break down just like how a banana peel would.
The usage of the edible cup can be used in special occasions and events, which can range from a simple picnic to large outdoor concerts or even during wedding.
‘You can throw them in the grass or disintegrate them in a matter of minutes with hot water,’ Briganti told The Guardian.
With disposable cups including those that are made from plastic corn, it takes months and even years for them to degrade and in this process of degradation, chemicals are leaked.
‘For every cup eaten [or composted], 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,’ says Briganti.
There are a few concerns that are raised for this product which includes the cost and its sustainability in the long run. Currently, the cost of the edible cup for a pack of four cost $11.95/£7.
For any new start-up, cost has always been an issue. Loliware found a way to combat this issue by launching a campaign to raise $1m to roll the product out across the United States in the hope that scaling up production could by any means help reduce the price.
In Malaysia, Free The Seed Sdn Bhd, started operations in Gurun, Kedah, to manufacture plates and several types of food packaging containers which are edible, using rice straw, plant-based fibres and sugar cane fibres.
The company uses patented bio-enzymatic technology to manufacture the products while it buys the raw material from 1,300 paddy smallholders in the northern states.
Free The Seed Sdn Bhd currently supplies biodegradable plates and food packaging items to several local councils in Malaysia to be used in food courts managed by them.
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