In Bristol, England, zero-waste shop Zero Green is using edible coffee cups from Cupffee so it can more closely live up to its name.
Based in Bulgaria, Cupffee produces the plastic cup alternative from wheat and barley. The low-calorie cups can hold a drink—hot or cold—for 40 minutes and either be eaten or composted following use.
“It’s very much like a sort of thick ice cream wafer, so it’s got that kind of nutty, wheaty taste,” A barista at Zero Green told Bristol Live. “This is as close to a zero-waste cup as we can get,” she said to Bristol Live.
Approximately 400 million plastic cups are used daily, according to Cupffee. Less than 1% of these cups are recycled.