An Australian entrepreneur has launched a 100 per cent disposable, compostable coffee cup and lid.

The PLAnet Cup, launched by Melissa Floreani, owner of Espresso Syndicate, a company which supplies sustainable, organic fair trade coffee to cafes across Melbourne, is lined with biodegradable PLA (cornstarch) which is harvested from renewable resources and can be composted after use, a statement said.

Where forerunners have retained a plastic lid, the PLAnet Cup is entirely compostable, from the cup to the innovative bioplastic lid, it added.

"As a coffee supplier, I was frustrated that I couldn't provide my customers with a genuinely eco-conscious disposable cup,” said Floreani, who developed the product after identifying a gap in the market.

“Modern consumers want to limit the impact that they are having on the world, but they want this to fit with their lifestyles too. With PLAnet Cup, cafes can provide their customers with an easy way to preserve their green conscience without sacrificing their treat-to-self,” she added.

The significant PLAnet Cups offering is the lid made from biodegradable plant-derived material that is 100 per cent compostable.  That means instead of using nasty plastic take away lids, we are putting something compostable and renewable into the waste stream.

The PLAnet Cup can be supplied to any cafe either pre-printed with their individual branding or as a white cup with minimal branding, accommodating the current trend for white cups with an ink logo stamp.

Steve Boyle, owner of Orange Café in Windsor, said: “Modern consumers genuinely care about the green credentials of the companies they buy from and the PLAnet Cups we’re using have been received well by our customers.”

“In my opinion, you can’t be a retailer today and not exhaust all eco platforms,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service