The Premier League is the most-watched league in the world. It has now restarted, and fans are sitting on the bleachers once again. Last weekend Manchester City served coffee, tea, and hot chocolate in edible coffee cups during their first home game at the Etihad Stadium. This is part of an effort to minimize litter in general and promote sustainability.
These edible cups are designed and produced by the company BioBite. The cups are 220 milliliters (7.4 fluid ounces) and made from wafers that will retain their form and crispiness for at least half of the game, and it is leak-proof for up to 12 hours. To keep the cup from touching questionable surfaces, the bottom and lower half are wrapped in a paper label made from recycled paper that can be recycled once again after the cup’s been eaten.
BioBite is a two-year-old Scotland-based company launched by Samuel Hvizd and Lyubomir Lambrev, students at the University of Aberdeen. They told Fast Company they produce the edible cups as a way to offer a “tasty, crunchy… fully organic alternative to all disposable cups.” The duo's overarching goal is to “gradually replace unsustainable paper and plastic solutions currently used in the food and beverage industry.”
The wafer that the cups are made from contains no sugar, wax, or artificial coatings. It’s composed of seven natural and vegan ingredients such as wheat flour, oat bran, and water. BioBites cups can endure temperatures up to 85 degrees Celsius or 185 degrees Fahrenheit thanks to a pressure heat-treatment process.
If people prefer not to eat the cup (that tastes like a cookie dipped in coffee and is only around 100 calories), the club ensures that the cup can be disposed of at the on-site compostable waste stream.
An estimated 7 million disposable coffee cups are used each day in the U.K., amounting to 2.5 billion every year. Using these edible cups at events is a smart way to cut waste. Companies like BioBite make the future come sooner.
Picture: BioBite via the Optimist Daily
