DESIGN FOR IMPACTIVANA RUIJTER & FLOOR OPHEIJ

The Plantble Coffee Cup

What?

What is the Plantebe coffee cup and why did we choose this object. De planteble coffecup is a initiative from the kickstart company Reduce Reuse Grow in Calafornia. The idea is simple. The cups are made from pulp, this is the material that you get when you recyle paper so many times it will loose all of its structure. Because of this material the cup will be more naturally degradable. In the material of the cup are seeds of trees and flowers from the eara processed where the cups will be used. If you put the cups in the ground there will grow plants or trees. You can also throw them in a trash can, then they wil naturally degradable in 100 days. This is the biggest benifit and pro-gress to fully compostability.

The Company

Reduce. Reuse. Grow Alex Henige is the initiator of this project, he studied landscaping and packaging technology at the Calafornia Polytechnic state University. Reduce stands for pack-aging without oil. Reuse stands for new ways of recycling. And Grow stands fort he plants and trees that will grow out of there products. Reduce. Reuse. Grow. Is a kickstart project there for the cups are still only available in Calaforina. Would the plantble coffe cup will be a possibiletie at the WDKA? We think this cup will fit right in to the spirit of the WDKA. It is new, environmentally conscious and a ‘nice’ product. There are a lot off lessons at the WDKA about pro-duct design, future thinking and design for impact. And we think this cup will have a impact at or school and our thought about reusing cups.

Intervieuw #1We intervieuwed the person who is responsable for the cof-fecups at school. His name is Lenny Reijnierse Questions and answers 1) Where are the coffe cups from WDKA coming from?ZNP VERPAKKINGEN / they are made in China

2)Are these cups recyclable ?I’m not sure about that, but they are made from recycled cardboard.

3)What happends with the cups if we trow them away? These go to the waste from school and then to a distributi-oncentre

4) What do the cups cost?It depens on the size, in bet-ween € 0.02 and € 0.05 5)Has the board ever though about recyclable cups?

I’m also not sure about that. We promot Cuppler. This is a sustainable cup designed by students from the Hogeschool. This cup cost 10 euro and you can use it for a longer time. 6)Would the school like to have recyclabe cups? See question 5 After this interview we wan-ned to know more about te recycle proces of coffe cups.So we made to Cycle of cof-fe cups. A normal one and a plantble one.

The Cycle of coffecups

The Cycle of coffecups

People, Planet & Profit

Intervieuw #2

As you can see in the diagram from the planable cup has the The plantable cup more impact on the people how drink out of it and the socity.

We want try to make are own plantable coffee cups. With paper that contains seeds to grow plants. But first we talked to a person who is responsable for eve-ryting that is green in the city. We ex-plained our idea and talked about the posibillities with John G.

The interview was taken in dutch (you can read it below). But the conclusion from this interviewwas that it is not pos-sible to grow plants randomly in Rotter-dam. Everything what is green in Rotter-dam is controllend and taken care of on a regularly bassis.But if we can grow plant in the cup an creat awareness under the people of Rotterdam. We want to great awareness about the air quality in the city, how plants grow and about products that are naturally degradable.

Interview John G. from gemeen-te groen. Bomen in het bos groeien alleen in combinatie met specifieke schimmels. Zonder deze schimmels groeit er niks.De eiken die nu in het kralingsebos staan hebben een korte penwortel (hiermee zitten ze ‘verankert’ in de grond) dus staan ze niet stevig.De gemeente is daarom bezig met een natuurlijke verjonging van het bos. Soorten die er nu al zijn en er de ko-mende 20 jaar nog meer bij komen zijn: Essdorens, Wilgen en Iepen.Deze bomen groeien natuurlijk goed in Rotterdam. Dus het heeft hierdoor geen zin om extra bomen te gaan planten.Daarnaast heeft een boomzaadje wei-nig kans om te over leven als je hem zomaar plant.Het moestuin idee van de ah is daarentegen wel interessanter als je bewust wording wil gaan creëren bij scholen en bedrijven.Denk aan zaadjes van groente & fruit. Deze groeien sneller dus je ziet sneller resultaat.Plant een zaadje in de beker

John mentioned the ‘moestuintjes’ from the Albert Hein as a example. This is a easy and fun way to great awareness. If we combine these ‘moestuintjes’ with naturally degradable cups and organice seed we will creat awareness and it will be achievable.

en als het plantje groot genoeg is zet je hem met beker en al in de grond.De beker word natuurlijk afgebroken en het plantje heeft een kans om groter te worden.Blue city is bezig om de maas-boulevaar groener te maken (intersant om ook met hun te gaan praten?). Zij willen planten gaan gebruiken om de fijn stof in de lucht te verminderen.Nieuwe diagram zou dan worden:Scholen —> bekers verzamelen —> Blue city —> kweek de plantjes daar uit —> planten groeien ——> verspreiding over bewoners maasboulevaar —> minder fijn stof. Het is belangrijk dat zon beker er wel esthetisch aantrekkelijk uit blijf zien. Met bv uitleg over hoe je dat zaadje het beste kan planten.

Een gurillia actie met bekers planten heeft niet zo veel zin. Omdat de ge-meente niet zelf het groen in rotterdam onderhoud dat doen aannemers en die houden hier dan geen rekening mee.Hoe zit het met de volksgezondheid als je zaadjes in de bekers doet?Den aan langere tijd. Hoe kan dit project een schake zijn tussen andere inijatieve in rotterdam op een langdurig tramjet.

DIY-CROWCUP

STEP #1

STEP #2

STEP #3

STEP #4

Put shredded paper in a bowl with 0,5 liter water

Mix it with or in a blender.You have to mix it till it is a grey stew.

Put some seed in there.

Put the paperstew in a sieve.An let the water leek out

We think if you want to creat something you have to try it yourself first. So we made a cup with seed. Below you find the steps so you can try it yourself.

STEP #5

STEP #6

STEP #7

STEP #8

If you have a square screen you can use this to make paper.If you dont have a square screen you can put the paperstew around a ceramic cup.

Let it dry.

Relase te dryed paper from the cera-mic cup or volt a cup out of your hand made paper.

Plant it some were and watch it grow!

ConclusionThe plantable coffeecup is a great initiative idea which introduces a new way on how we need to handle our waste. Tons of plastic cups are thrown away per day and end up in our ocean. The coffeecup is not just a solution for all off the waste but is also a creative concept to create awareness with the consumers. After our research we found out the cup from reduce reuse grow won’t succeed in Rotterdam but a different version of it might, at least we hope.

#MYGROWCUPShare your cup with the #MYGROWCUP