Turning Cups into Trees: A Recycling Innovation to End the Traditional To-Go Cup

Whether you run on Dunkin or get your morning jolt from Starbucks, you’ve seen the unbelievable amounts of waste that comes from the disposable to-go cup. While many places are starting to reward customers with discounts by using their own mugs and thermos, our culture of convenience still makes to-go cups and containers the go-to option for travel. However, one company is developing new recycling innovations to turn the disposable cup into an important, green planter.

Reduce. Reuse. Grow is a green innovation company based out of San Luis Obispo, CA, hoping to make their growing cups and containers the mainstream in waste streams. Unlike a traditional to-go cup made from some recycled paper materials and plastic, their cups are designed to be used and recycled as a growing container. Each cup would be embedded with the seeds of local plants, turning it into a green product with little effort. 

The current prototype of the cups are supposedly easily planted by drinkers just by soaking them in water for five minutes, then burying them outside. The seeds embedded in the plants are chosen by area and can potentially grow flowers or trees. For example, the prototypes in California include poppy flowers and redwood trees, natural plants to the state.

For those that do not want to plant the cups themselves, drinkers are encouraged to bring them back to the original coffee shop, who would then collect the cups for special pick ups by the organization. The organization would then plant the cups in areas that need reforesting. Overall, planting the cup could extract up to one ton of CO2 from the air each year, making it an especially valuable green cup.

The company has exceeded their Kickstarter goal and are hoping to use the money to do more research on creating the best cups for drinking and planting. Hopefully, they will also expand their website so that drinkers can plot where they have planted their cups, or find local areas to plant their cups. Overall, the idea is a genius way to tackle the growing waste problem by turning waste into green treasure.