Tag archives: cups
Helping to spread the word
Posted by Toby Daniels on Saturday, 28 November 2009
Thanks again to all of our supporters and also to everyone who joined the Kickstarter campaign since the last update.
Things are moving along nicely, but we have still have a very long way to go. Securing the prize for the design contest is crucial, especially if we want to attract the best design teams from around the world to help us find a solution to the paper cup problem.
From now on we’re going to ask each of you to help support the initiative by doing one simple thing to help bring awareness to the project.
Today, we’d love for you to add the following copy and link to your email signatures, to drive awareness and to encourage your friends and coworkers to get involved.
Hate disposable cups? Be part of the solution:
http://www.thebetacup.com/fund-the-prize/
Thanks so much for you support!
Toby & the betacup team
Posted in: Funding | Tagged: campaign, contest, cups, kickstarter, prize | No Comments
I am not a paper cup….I am also not that convenient.
Posted by Toby Daniels on Friday, 13 November 2009
I wanted to share a comment from one of our Kickstarter Campaign backers. bLaKtivist comment below touches on one of the main challenges of redesigning the reusable coffee cup.
“‘I’m curious to know what your thoughts are of the “I am not a paper cup” design by DCI.
While interesting because it visually mimicks the cup that you are trying to replace, it still doesn’t seem to be as functional as one might like. I used to work in a store that sold these items, and we got frequent complaints that they leaked. [Spillage is NO FUN.] But I think more importantly, these cups are also ceramic, which doesn’t make it very durable for folks constantly on the move.”
Our view is that the “I Am Not A Paper Cup” is an interesting concept. If nothing else it raises awareness around the problem, and that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t solve the bigger issue that we are looking to address, and that our Kickstarter friend also points out. Designing something that is both practical and convenient as well as desirable in the consumers mind is what we really need to focus on.
What do you think? What other parameters should we be thinking about when creating the design brief?
Posted in: Research findings | Tagged: ceramic, cups, practical, spillage | 6 Comments
TED Talk: Chris Jordan pictures some shocking stats about paper cups
Posted by admin on Friday, 18 September 2009
In this talk artist Chris Jordan presents an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day.
For example, we use 4 million cups per day just on airlines, which of course do not get reused or recycled. We also use 40 million cups a day for just for hot beverages. Check out the first few minutes of this talk, where Chris provides even more insight:
About Chris Jordan
Chris runs the numbers on modern American life — making large-format, long-zoom artwork from the most mindblowing data about our stuff.
Photographer Chris Jordan trains his eye on American consumption. His 2003-05 series “Intolerable Beauty” examines the hypnotic allure of the sheer amount of stuff we make and consume every day: cliffs of baled scrap, small cities of shipping containers, endless grids of mass-produced goods.
His 2005 book In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster is a chilling, unflinching look at the toll of the storm. And his latest series of photographs, “Running the Numbers,” gives dramatic life to statistics of US consumption. Often-heard factoids like “We use 2 million plastic bottles every 5 minutes” become a chilling sea of plastic that stretches beyond our horizon.
In April 2008, Jordan traveled around the world with National Geographic as an international eco-ambassador for Earth Day 2008.
“As you walk up close, you can see that the collective is only made up of lots and lots of individuals. There is no bad consumer over there somewhere who needs to be educated. There is no public out there who needs to change. It’s each one of us.”
Chris Jordan on Bill Moyers Journal
Posted in: Inspiration | Tagged: cups, photography, reused, statistics | No Comments
Why we don’t switch to reusable
Posted by Toby Daniels on Wednesday, 16 September 2009
“Dear readers, if you don’t drink from a reusable cup, what’s stopping you from making the switch?”
This question was asked of Planet Green’s reader’s in this post. In the piece, they make some compelling arguments as to why consumers should consider switching to reusable coffee cups:
“Take all the people who read this magazine, then persuade them to sip their morning coffee from a travel mug for one week. Result: Enough trees to fill two football fields will be spared the ax. Can’t commit to a week? Switching to reusable cups for just one day will save as much energy as using 1,000 gallons of gasoline.”
But regardless of how compelling these arguments are, consumers are not switching, at least not in large numbers.
We’d like to pose another question. Why?
We feel that one possible answer to this question is that it is simply not convenient.
One of the problems reusable cups is that they do not fit within a consumers existing routine. If they’re commuting to work by car or public transport, or they’re rushing between meetings, a bulky mug, that requires cleaning, is not an attractive option, regardless of their desires to be eco-friendly.
While this is not excusable, it is understandable. Eco-options, must be both sustainable and convenient, otherwise they will only ever appeal to the committed few.
Posted in: Inspiration | Tagged: convenience, cups, eco-friendly, mugs, planetgreen, reusable | 5 Comments
A brief explanation of the betacup
Posted by Marcel Botha on Thursday, 3 September 2009
In this video we highlight the two significant problems that we are looking to address as part of the betacup initiative and also describe the mission for the project.
We of course welcome your feedback. How should we be approaching the problems identified? Who and what should we be highlighting on this site and should Toby consider a career as television presenter or perhaps even a film star? Enjoy!
Betacup from the betacup on Vimeo.
Posted in: Inspiration | Tagged: cups, mission, paper, problems, trees, video, vision, water | 2 Comments
