In 2018, OpenIDEO partnered with Closed Loop Partners and the NextGen Consortium to launch the NextGen Cup Challenge, asking innovators the question:
How might we design the next generation fiber cup to be recoverable on a global scale, while maintaining the performance standards we know and trust?
480 teams from around the world joined the Challenge, and after months of concept development, prototyping and iteration, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge.
Winners represent the most innovative solutions across three distinct categories: innovative cup liners, new materials, and reusable cup service models. The NextGen Cup Consortium is excited to continue building relationships with these companies and work with them to advance and scale their concepts globally.
These teams will be awarded a portion of up to $1 million in funding, and up to six of them will be moving on to a post-Challenge business accelerator. Accelerator teams will be advancing their solutions by exploring questions around technical feasibility, business viability, and user desirability. They will receive ongoing support to scale up their models and prepare for production and distribution at a global scale.
If you are interested in following their journey, be sure to subscribe to receive updates from Closed Loop Partners' Center for the Circular Economy, managing partners of the NextGen Cup Challenge and Consortium.
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Congratulations!
Innovative Cup Liners
These companies are rethinking the polyethylene plastic liners in cups that currently make to-go cups difficult to recycle.
Colombier BioBarrier Coating
By: Colombier Group
Location: Netherlands, Finland
BioBarrier to replace plastic in cups, food containers, and packaging.
Colombier is a family company whose focus is on sustainability in our business, our families and our environment, across generations. By listening to customers in the food and packaging industry we have developed our
ecological Colombier Barrier Coating. We strive to do our share in reducing plastic consumption and providing
environmentally viable solutions.
Earth Cup
By: C.E.E R. SCHISLER with the contribution of Sun Chemical
Location: France
Earth Cup is the home compostable 100% paper cup, monomaterial, without
polyethylene for hot and cold drinks and ice cream. It is also recyclable and has the same technical barriers and food contact certification as polyethylene cups.
Footprint Formed Fiber Solution
By: Footprint US
Location: USA
Footprint's in-market technologies evolved to provide a formed fiber cup, lid, and paper straw solution that is recyclable and compostable.
The Footprint Cup, Lid, Straw line of products are creating a new era of sustainable cups for quick service restaurants. As a fully formed fiber-based solution, Footprint cups and lids bring a host of new innovations to
the cup space that traditional manufacturing cannot match. From variable wall thickness, to textures, to formed features
that interlock with each other, Footprint cups and lids are changing the way cups work.
The Game Changer Cup
By: Kotkamills Oy
Location: Finland
Plastic free, recyclable and compostable cupstock that can be processed into cups at existing cup making machines.
Kotkamills is a responsible partner that delivers renewable products and performance to its customers' processes via product innovations created from wood, a renewable raw material. Kotkamills’ team of 500 persons is changing the game from Kotka, Finland.
New Gen BioPBS Coated Cup
By:
Location: Thailand
New Gen BioPBS is today’s solution for a sustainable tomorrow. This New Gen BioPBS liner is a solution for all coated paper packaging to make them recyclable or home compostable.
Solenis Topscreen: Consumer Board
By: Solenis LLC
Location: USA, Belgium
Solenis LLC creates a barrier coating that is recyclable and compostable. Solenis is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals for water-intensive industries, including the pulp, paper, oil and gas, chemical processing, mining, biorefining, power and municipal markets. The company’s product portfolio includes a broad array of process, functional and water treatment chemistries, as well as state-of-the-art monitoring and control systems. These technologies are used by customers to improve operational efficiencies, enhance product quality, protect plant assets and minimize environmental impact.
Sun Chemical - Inks and Coatings
By: Sun Chemical Corporation
Location: USA
Sun Chemical, a member of the DIC group, is a leading producer of printing inks, coatings and supplies, pigments, polymers, liquid compounds, solid compounds, and application materials. Our materials will help replace polyethylene-coated paper cups with cost-effective structures that are recyclable and compostable.
WestRock Circular Cup Solution
By: WestRock Corporation
Location: USA
WestRock (NYSE:WRK), a leading provider of differentiated paper and packaging solutions, offers the WestRock Circular Cup, a recyclable and compostable paperboard solution for hot or cold beverage cup applications for the NextGen Cup Challenge. This solution meets all current specifications in the paper cup and foodservice industry while improving recoverability and enhancing the recycling process through 100% repulpability.
New Materials
This company is using cutting edge, plant-based materials to make compostable cups.
Solublue Biodegradable Cups and Straws
By: Solublue Ltd.
Location: UK
Solublue products are plant based, food grade and non-toxic products that biodegrade after use, designed to replace single use plastics in such areas as single use cups and straws, food retail packaging and structural packaging.
Reusable Cup Service Models
The cups made by these companies aren’t single-use, they just keep cycling–remaining in service by harnessing the power of technology and design.
CupClub - Join the Reusable Revolution
By: CupClub
Location: UK
CupClub is the world's first returnable cup ecosystem which replaces the 100 billion single-use cups and lids used globally every year. CupClub provides a service for drinks, allowing consumers to take away hot and
cold beverages from any participating cafe, returning them when finished to the nearest CupClub drop point. Think bike
sharing, but for cups.
ReCup - Deposit System for Reusable Cups
By: ReCup GmbH
Location: Germany
RECUP is the sustainable alternative to disposable cups and a more convenient one to reusable ones—that you have to buy, carry around and, most often, forget at home.
The system is simple: instead of bringing your own cup from home, you simply rent your cup for a deposit whenever and wherever you’re in the actual need for a drink to-go—such as in the mornings at the bakery around the corner, at lunch at your offices’ cafeteria or at the train station before heading to another city. After consumption, you return your cup to the same or any other participating shop in the same or any other city. You then receive the deposit back and don’t have to worry about the cleaning of the cup or carrying it around. By participating in the RECUP-system, shops benefit from a convenient and holistic service.
Muuse
By: Muuse
Location: Indonesia, Hong Kong
Muuse operates a deposit-based platform for smart, reusable food and beverage packaging in office, festival, restaurant-chain, and city-wide networks with the goal of eliminating single-use waste. We connect our cups--and third party products—to internet of things technology through RFID tags and an intuitive mobile/web platform. This company is changing the way we
use packaging without sacrificing consumer or restaurant convenience.
Honorable Mentions
These companies, although not winners, merited an Honorable Mention. They are two examples of the many innovative material types submitted to the Challenge, and we’re excited to watch them grow.
Nature's Cup
Location: USA
Creating a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic cups, using gourds which are naturally grown inside custom-designed 3D-printed molds.
Founded by Jun Aizaki, CRÈME is a collaboration of dynamic, international designers and creative professionals. Based on the idea that all design challenges require the same problem solving approach, we approach a chair, a
restaurant, a building, the same way we would approach a logo or a block.
Mushroom Cup
By: Concentric LLC
Location: USA
Mushroom Cup is a compostable cup grown into shape using mushrooms and is coated with cellulose acetate, a biodegradable plastic.
The mushroom cup is made primarily from 3 materials: a base organic material (such as wood
pulp, corn husks, or discarded grains), the mycelium organism which binds that material
together, and cellulose acetate which is used as a protective waterproof coating for the cup.
The concept does not need any additional infrastructure to recover the
cup once it's discarded.
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The NextGen Challenge is a part of NextGen Consortium, a global initiative convened by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy and founding members Starbucks and McDonald’s. The Coca-Cola Company, Yum! Brands, Nestle, and Wendy's support the Consortium, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is an advisory partner. OpenIDEO is the Consortium's open innovation partner.
