The Betacup Challenge has been underway for over a week now, asking designers to invent a means to dramatically reduce (or eliminate) the wastage resulting from unrecyclable paper coffee cups. Starbucks, a betacup partner, is putting $20,000 of prize money towards the goal.
Jovoto, the platform the competition is running on, fosters open innovation. This means that many ideas are posted as preliminary concepts, available for jurors, other competition registrants and the public to comment on and critique. They're growing in number and evolving in complexity by the day—if you're interested in submitting or reviewing ideas, register here.
So far, the richest entries have combined cup solutions with larger changes in business models, policy, or community infrastructure. It's simple enough to make a recyclable or reusable cup, but much harder to change consumers' behavior.
Sriram155's proposal for a Rent-A-Mug system proposes not only incentives, but also a strict enforcement of the system. In this case, a large deposit is put down for a mug, but each refill is free until the value of the deposit has been reached. This is similar to how a pre-paid metro card works, with the same questions: what happens if you forget your cup? We've excerpted his project description below, but visit his entry and read the comments for more elaboration.
A customer visits Starbucks to buy coffee. The customer can either rent a mug from starbucks by paying a safe deposit for the mug or can bring his own mug. To illustrate this concept, we assume the customer rents a mug from Starbucks by paying a deposit of say $20 + price of coffee. Upon his consecutive visits to Starbucks, he will be forced to bring his own cup (if not, he should rent a new cup by paying $20 more). In this case, we assume the customer brings his own cup for his consecutive visit. Starbucks will deduct the cost of coffee from the deposit the customer paid for the mug. So the customer walks in, fills his mug for free and walks away.
An entirely different perspective altogether, Ensifer proposes the development of a biodegradable cup embedded with nutrients and seeds. This cup would coincide with a branding campaign entitled "Coffee to Grow," encouraging users to plant their cups. An interesting idea, but, as Masswear points out in the comments, "They probably will let one or a few grow and discard their following cups as before." A biodegradable solution is conceivable; are there other ways to encourage users to dispose of them properly and let them degrade? Ensifer's description follows--contribute to the discussion at his Idea page. Consideration Coffee is always drunk and he is always given in any form by container. Only the mug should be also acceptable for the nature and not to load them even more.
The basic idea In the nature seeds of trees, flowers, shrubs spread etc. either about the wind, or they allow to work animals for themselves they eat the fruits, and retire at other place again and act therefore as a gardener.
The idea The mugs should pass of biology cellulose, e.g., cornflour or a pressed plant cellulose, and are biodegradable therefore 100%.
In the ground of the mugs plants seed are after connection with water, and the decomposing mug germinates as a nutrient.
Therefore the mugs would not dirty any more the nature separate spread!
Finally, rather than designing something new, Leah pitches "ongoing training of the staff," addressing problems with the existing bring-your-own-mug model.Though this idea wants more elaboration and detail, the proposal to address the problem from a service perspective is a fresh one. Below, leah's analysis of the situation. Visit her page to weigh in on other ways staff might be trained to help reduce the consumption of paper cups.
There are many things to be done on this front. The following ideas are not about recycling the cups but focused on changing the habits of STAFF and CUSTOMERS.
Let's start with ONGOING TRAINING of the staff. In my local Starbucks, the staff automatically reaches for a paper cup without asking my preference. When I asked the staff why, she said most customers prefer paper because they think the ceramic mugs are not hygienic.
Ongoing training on HYGIENE and COMMUNICATING this to the customer would help. The first question asked should be for here or to go. If it's for here, the ceramic mug can be sanitised in front of the customer by blasting it with the hot water.
TRAINING can also cover the life cycle of a paper cup compared to ceramic mug, with a focus on environmental savings, cost savings and feel good factors. REWARD staff with a point system for each in-house drink sold using a ceramic mug. The calculation of this can be done on the cash register (add two new functions to the system 'ceramic' or 'throw away').
Keep an eye out as these ideas develop and more are submitted. Submit your own or join the conversation here.
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