Here’s a sweet treat that may leave you a little sticky. Anna Bullus’s gives new meaning to term ‘biodegradeable’ with a vanishing cup made entirely of sugar. With ‘One Cup or Two’ not only is there no leftover plastic or paper cup headed for landfill, but there is also no need to add sugar to your tea or coffee — as you can just add your tea or coffee to the sugar cup and enjoy. One Cup or Two can be used up to four times and come in an assortment of flavors including plain, almond and Irish Whiskey. Hey Starbucks…. can you smell a fun eco idea brewing here?
Nifty, fun, a welcome addition to the new green design zeitgeist. I like this sort of stuff and I’m glad to see it at inhabitat.com. I just hope we don’t lose the forest for the trees with these green baubles. Okay, so you save a cup (or not, if you eschew sugar and carry a mug). Better than not saving a cup. But now go to Google Earth and type in “Tokyo.” Take a good look from above at the size of this city. Zoom in, then out, move around. Really take in the vast scale of Tokyo. Now go to Mexico City and do the same. Go to Sao Paulo, Shanghai, London, New York, LA, Houston. Over Houston, follow the tentacles of highways sprawling across Texas. This is what we’re up against, not paper cups. Go ahead and cheer for the sugar cup. Just keep bringing us also ideas that match the magnitude of change required for true sustainability.
Looks like a sticky mess to me. I often find fault moderns’ aesthetic of form over function (let alone their inability to grow even the hardiest houseplants) – look beyond the simple minded solution and you might find an equal if not larger problem with your alternative material.
Sugar agriculture wipes our forests and pollutes our streams too. Thats not all:
http://www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/pdf-alt/landwirtscgaft/sugar_and_the_environmen_05.pdf
Get with it Inhabitat, we already no how hip and cool you are, we expect more than this.
Very cool, but not green in the slightest – what about the energy used, the extra packaging needed to transport these things without them breaking etc… Plus over in the US I’m guessing it’d be all of ten minutes before someone sued Starbucks for getting scalded.
Still, purely as a party piece they’re pretty cool!
[...] Made For The Sweet Tooth Published November 15th, 2007 Colors / Materials Trends , Design , Environment / Sustainability Here’s a very bio friendly cup, its made of sugar. I guess the longer you leave it the sweeter it gets. Posted form inhabitat.com [...]
Apart from the health risks of too much sugar consumption, the environmental and social impacts of sugar production are, or should be, well known to subscribers. This is simply a ridiculous idea which ticks all the wrong boxes
What a waste! Allt that sugar compared to the tiny amount of plastic or paper used to produce a regular cup. I’ll pass on this one.
I oppose the idea of disposible cups at all, even the “green” ones. But it made me smile and instead of working I will contemplate what coffee drinkers are supposed to do who hate to have sugar in their coffee while I have a cup of coffee.
yeah totally not digging it.
is it locally harvested? where is it manufactured? and how many times can you use it before you have to throw most of it away because it loses its function?
seems like a locally crafted mug that will still hold your tea 20 yrs from now is a much better investment.
I could go into all the reasons that plantation sugar is appalling for the enviroment but I have half a spoon in my coffee right now. On a functionality test, this idea is one step up from a chocolate teapot. On an asthetic test it should be classed as a piece of post post modern performance art, where you watch some cool dude’s cuppa dissolve before your very eyes, over six hours and 42 cups of tea later. at which point the audiance participation kicks in and you asist ‘the artist’ while they vomit.
Not even a good idea at the time.
Interesting idea but in the end it’s a bit silly. When it comes to mugs there is only one truly green route: going to the salvation army and buying old mugs. Anything else is just pointless production as there are plenty of mugs already out there.
I would buy it… at least occassionaly I love rock candy and this would be like drinking from rock candy.. besides I live in Louisiana, we grow cane here…. we could use the added business.
bad idea in my opinion. This is just a disposable cup and a huge waste of sugar for each.
It might br fun to use one from time to time, but I wouldn’t dare to sell it as an “ecologic” product