Replace Paper Cups with Jelloware Edible & Biodegradable Cups

Feb 12, 2011
Chasity Goddard

Jelloware paper cup alternatives are fully compostable and biodegradable if not eaten. - Photo Courtesy of The Way We See the World

Replace your paper cups with natural Jelloware. These drinking cups are edible and disintegrate within one week of use if not eaten.

Paper cups are often coated with plastic resin making them non-recyclable and keeping them in tact in the landfill for as long as 20 years. The paper cup is not much better than the Styrofoam varieties that have been banned in several cities in the U.S. and in Europe. The largely ineffective ban of Styrofoam has yet to be enforced in several cities in California since the passage of the legislation. As hard as they try, governments cannot legislate environmental responsibility.

One of the main problems is the lack of a viable alternative. Paper is not an effective alternative to Styrofoam. Paper cups and storage products consume massive amounts of resources to produce, causing many environmental activists to recognize and support the use of plastic cups over paper ones. With so much conflicting information, how do we know which products to choose? We need portable, disposable cups and take out containers, but none of these containers are environmentally friendly. What do we do? We invent something new.

Environmentally Friendly Disposable Cups

The Way We See the World is a product design company headquartered in New York City. The designers of The Way We See the World, Monica Bhatia, Chelsea Briganti, Ingrid Zweifel, and Leigh Ann Tucker, entered the Jell-O Mold competition sponsored by The Gowanus Studio Space and received the runner up prize for structural integrity. After the competition, they realized that this product design had wide-ranging capabilities. On January 26, the company reached its $10,000 funding goal and will begin further development and testing on the product.

Jelloware is a flexible, disposable cup that is fully biodegradable. The cups are made from agar, a gelatinous substance and are flavored to compliment your beverage. The current flavors available are lemon-basil, ginger-mint and rosemary-beet. A line called Absolut Jelloware is flavored for specific Absolut Vodka drinks including the Absolut Cosmo, Bloody Mary, White Russian, Vodka Bramble, Raspberry Truffle, Dirty Martini, Ruby Celebration and Salty Dog. The cups are flexible and currently can only be used for cold drinks, but hopefully that will change with further development.

Why Are Biodegradable Products Important

Jelloware is definitely a step in the right direction toward biodegradable, sustainable products. After enjoying a drink, simply eat your cup or throw it away and the cup disintegrates in one week or less. No environmentalist could ask for much more than that. Biodegradable products are an essential element in the effort to reduce waste and land pollution. Products that naturally decay add nutrients back to the soil and do not linger, pollute and fill our overflowing landfill areas. We are running out of earth in which to hide and store our garbage, so be on the lookout for biodegradable Jelloware cups in the Summer of 2011.