Start drinking from used coffee cups!

By: ritnas

Have you ever just stopped to consider how much plastic you actually come across in a day? Like if you go to a convenient store, do you actually even notice that basically everything you see is either wrapped or stuffed in plastic packaging?

Ok so, what is plastic and why am I talking about it?

Plastic is a synthetic material that can easily be molded into different shapes, thereby being easy to use, whilst also being produced at a very low cost compared to other alternatives. Seems unproblematic right?

Wrong.

Plastic consists of several toxic pollutants that pollute our land, our water, and our air. It is also incredibly hard material to break down, taking anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years to fully break down, making it´s damage to the environment severe and long-lasting (Madaan,2018).

The production of plastic doesn´t appear to be coming to a halt any time soon, however, when plastic has already been created and we are already aware of the longevity of it, is there any reason why we shouldn´t just reuse the plastic already produced?

[https://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/rcup/rcup-cream—green-reusable-coffee-cup—340ml/]

A company that has taken this into consideration and designed a sustainable, recycled product with said concept is British company Ashortwalk, the creators behind rCup.

rCup is the world´s first reusable coffee cup made from used paper cups.

A UK estimate states that around 99.75% of coffee cups end up in the trash, and therefore these producers wanted to design a sustainable yet fully functional coffee cup.

As societies interest in sustainability continues to grow, the concept of the rCup in itself is likely to intrigue a larger audience, however, for a product to gain recognition and stay on the market, a good idea isn´t enough, the product must function as well as other similar products on the market. «No design exercise can be deemed worthwhile unless it fulfils its function and does so efficiently». (Rawsthorne, 2013)

In my humble opinion, the qualities a reusable coffee cup should inhabit are quite simple. It should be easy to drink from, it should be leak proof, it should keep your coffee warm as you drink it, and it should stay in good shape for a long period of time.

Now, does the rCup´s design measure up to these standards?

My answer: definitely. The rCup is designed with a 360° drinking tip, with a one-hand opening whilst also being 100% leak proof, meaning it is easy to toss in your bag and bring along with you anywhere. It has a 10-year guarantee, and also promises to keep your beverage hot for up to 1 hour and 20 minutes.

An important standard of good design is that it has to be “useful in practice, or simple to use» (Rawsthorne, 2013). The rCup manages to fulfill the standards of a good quality reausable coffee cup, whilst also rethinking the way that we use our current resources. It manages to provide good, efficient design, whilst also providing us with a guilt-free, sustainable alternative to something so many of us use daily, and I would therefore conclude with its design being pretty much the best alternative on our current market. And if you are a coffee drinker I recommend you to go buy it now.

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