Designer Builds Paper Coffee Cups Without Plastic Lids To Reduce Pollution

Plastic waste is one of our planet¡¯s biggest problems. And even though some plastic is recyclable, most of it ends up in garbage dumps where it takes forever to decompose.

Butterfly Cup

However, people are innovating in new ways to kick plastic out of our lives and now, a designer has created a special kind of coffee cup that doesn¡¯t require a plastic lid.

The cup is called a ¡®Butterfly Cup¡¯. It is made entirely out of paper and possesses an unusual folding design that allows for the cup to be completely shut, thus eliminating the need for a lid. Additionally, it also includes a nifty little spout that also eliminates the need for plastic straws.

The unique fold is patented. The paper on the inside has a special water-based dispersion coating on the inside prevents the cup from leaking. This paper actually comes from a special mill in Finland. Moreover, the printing on the cup has been done by plant-derived inks. So when the cup is eventually thrown away, it can be easily decomposed without causing the planet any harm.

Manufacturing the butterfly cup costs just one pence more than a regular plastic-coated cup -- three pence cheaper than the cups with a bio-plastic lid on top.

ButterflyCup CEO and Founder Tommy McLoughlin said in a statement, ¡°It is a travesty that, of the billions of coffee cups the UK uses each year, so few get recycled. We created ButterflyCup to lift the lid on this eco-disaster and help solve it.¡±

Butterfly Cup

He added, ¡°We believe it is the world¡¯s most environmentally friendly disposable cup, and we hope more coffee outlets across the UK give their customers the option of using it in the near future. We are thrilled to be launching in the UK with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, an organisation whose ethos of protecting the natural world we share.¡±

The company is currently approaching coffee chains in the UK to switch their regular cups with the Butterfly Cup.