A good idea ??

[Moondog55]

I just saw this on a friends Facebook page
If it's applicable to Australia would it work or are people simply too lazy here?
https://www.healthyfoodhouse.com/this-b ... GTHctd9S7Y

[tastrax]

Good idea but I would want to know which seeds would be in the cup. Maybe Australian natives suitable for home gardens and attracting bees and native birds.

[north-north-west]

Good idea but I would want to know which seeds would be in the cup. Maybe Australian natives suitable for home gardens and attracting bees and native birds.

This. It needs the right mix of species - including native grasses and shrubs. Just keep away from the ones that tend to turn into weeds outside of their usual range (some acacias and melaleucas, for instance).

[Moondog55]

There a few Australia wide grasses and flowers I think.
Wallaby grass etc:
If we could do something like this it may be of benefit.
Not that I have used a take-away cup in 40 years but lots of folk do.

[Neo]

Yup good idea as spoken above!

Could easily be state-based varieties. Not many cups would get sown though. Maybe something suitable for a pot on a balcony/small garden bed.

[Biggles]

No, not a good idea at all. It is a disposable masquerading as being useful after the fact. But it simply reinforces the lazy throw-away mentality that is so deeply entrenched in the Australian psyche, to say nothing of the problems the US has with waste. I don't use take-away cups; I take my own MONT cup with me wherever I go.

[wildwanderer]

Agree with Biggles.

Not a good idea. Will just give people an excuse to chuck their paper cup out the window/leave it at park etc.

I can't see the fact it has embedded seeds to be an asset/benefit for the majority that will end up in landfill or recycling depots.

I'd like to know the energy/materials that goes into the manufacturing process. If it's more than a regular biodegradable cup then it's likely a net negative for the environment.

[Neo]

I saw an older National Parks promo. They looked like a book of matches, instead of a hot end the matches had native seeds (callistemon).

[Moondog55]

Well at the moment coffee cups are neither bio-degradable or recyclable and I for one would like to see some change there. As for the rubbish aspect people do that anyway with no thought.

[north-north-west]

Well at the moment coffee cups are neither bio-degradable or recyclable and I for one would like to see some change there. As for the rubbish aspect people do that anyway with no thought.

+1

[Aushiker]

No, not a good idea at all. It is a disposable masquerading as being useful after the fact. But it simply reinforces the lazy throw-away mentality that is so deeply entrenched in the Australian psyche, to say nothing of the problems the US has with waste. I don't use take-away cups; I take my own MONT cup with me wherever I go.

+ 1

Also how do you ensure that the plants are appropriate for the area?

[Moondog55]

No, not a good idea at all. It is a disposable masquerading as being useful after the fact. But it simply reinforces the lazy throw-away mentality that is so deeply entrenched in the Australian psyche, to say nothing of the problems the US has with waste. I don't use take-away cups; I take my own MONT cup with me wherever I go.

+ 1

Also how do you ensure that the plants are appropriate for the area?

Easy enough to find a native grass that is Australia wide. If you look at the cup in the post you can see a map of the state of California and the text under that map says California Wildflowers. I see no technical difficulty in an actual implementation using regional specific plant seeds because if people are going to chuck a cup out of a window it's going to be with-in 30 minutes of buying that cup of takeaway coffee and if they are going to take it home most people buy their coffee close to home.

[north-north-west]

Themeda and Panicum grasses, daisy yams, bulbine lilies . . . it wouldn't be hard to come up with a few shrubs or small trees that are widespread in certain states or regions. Ericas and Epacris and other heath species, for instance, and various Banksias.

[Biggles]

^ This is completely beside the point of the cup still being a throw-away item, something the world needs much less of, but which is being promoted as having some good to the environment at the end of its useful life. But this isn't excelusively or necessarily so! That cup could end up in Texas or Washington or Central Park in NYC...soiled with God knows what besides the latent seeds. So who is to say it must remain in CA? And if this is such a brilliant idea, why hasn't it been tried before? Has it? If so, what was the outcome?

Some, but not all take-away coffee cups are recyclable. There are still far, far too many going into landfill. The very best result is to do away with these entirely and, like at Confest, insist on bringing your own cup/mug for filling, to which any Barista at the Holy Cow tent will be cheerfully pleased to fill.

[Moondog55]

So I have to ask what you do with your egg cartons?
I compost mine but really I see little difference when it comes to paper packaging between a coffee cup and an egg carton IF that coffee cup is easily degradable. It's easy enough to make edible food containers, Melbourne Zoo uses edible cups to serve their takeaway food in and what is left over becomes animal fodder at the zoo. While I agree that we need to get away from the disposable container ASAP I do see things like this as part of the transition process

[Neo]

We don't see the actual volume of single use waste in our daily lives. Coffee cups are a mere blip on the radar.

That product we like to buy (every item!) comes in plastic and cardboard, was delivered to the store in more cardboard stacked on a timber pallet and wrapped up with copious amounts of clingwrap. The ingredients to make that product were also delivered to the factory, packaged and wrapped in more chuckout materials, all the way from the farms and/or mines. The ingredients to produce those parts ... etc etc

[Nuts]

Seeded/re-purpose-able gift cards were sold in a local market years ago, which is a good idea and at the same time kind of odd in a nutshell.

I gave all the (clean) packaging back from a rare maccas visit, only to watch them dump it in the bin. We really need a major intervention at a government level, some of these companies are grossly negligent. And an audit, how many disposable cups = one keeper cup (assuming you do only own the one keeper, not a bunch, one from that promo, one that lost it's lid etc.) Feel good v's do good.

[north-north-west]

We don't see the actual volume of single use waste in our daily lives. Coffee cups are a mere blip on the radar.

That product we like to buy (every item!) comes in plastic and cardboard, was delivered to the store in more cardboard stacked on a timber pallet and wrapped up with copious amounts of clingwrap. The ingredients to make that product were also delivered to the factory, packaged and wrapped in more chuckout materials, all the way from the farms and/or mines. The ingredients to produce those parts ... etc etc

Clingwrap is recycled by a lot of businesses, including supermarkets.

[Biggles]

You can have your cup and eat it too...

https://www.traveller.com.au/air-new-ze ... ste-h1k525

[Warin]

You can have your cup and eat it too...

https://www.traveller.com.au/air-new-ze ... ste-h1k525

Nice. Could be extended to the plates too...
Humm for an overnight walk you could eat most of the serving things ...