KeepCup

WHY Plastic?

"When auditing office waste, it’s common for us see bins with 20% disposable cups. Keep Cup is a great way to reduce the use of disposable cups, given they are not recyclable!
Great Forest, Environmental Consultants

Disposable cups, be they made from paper, plastic or polystyrene, demonstrate a significant problem for our environment. Not only does it result in a vast number of disposable cups ending up in landfill, it puts unnecessary pressure on our natural resources to manufacture and transport them. Single use disposable cups are definitely not the biggest perpetrator destroying the environment, but they are a clear demonstration of how convenience and consumption has become increasingly out of control.

Very few disposable coffee cups aren’t made from recycled paper. Most disposable cups are manufactured from 100% bleached virgin paperboard, sprayed with a polyethylene coating. They are often impregnated with toxic dyes which add to the difficulty in recycling. The plastic lining means they are not easily recycled. Biodegrading of disposable cups, particularly in dry parts of the world, can take 50 years or more. When disposable cups are compostable they must to be placed in actual compost bins not the garbage to be recycled, otherwise they remain landfill.

On average, each disposable cup contains 5% of the raw materials used in manufacture and delivery. This is why reduce is the first principle of sustainability. According to Susan Freinkel, author of "Plastic a Toxic Love Story" over half of all plastics produced go into single use applications.
Independent Life Cycle Assessment has been conducted by The Centre for Design at RMIT comparing the KeepCup with disposables. Its findings were conclusive, over a year; KeepCups use half the carbon, one third of water use and half the energy compared with disposables. These figures reduce further over the expected lifespan of the average two year lifespan of the KeepCup.
Based on data extrapolated from the research of Dr Martin Hocking, from two articles published in 1991 and 1994, we anticipate the break even with disposables to be as low as 15 uses.

If you compare 1 KeepCup to 300+ disposable cups used over a year it represents 86 grams of plastic to 900+ grams of plastic contained in disposables.
Use of reusables gathers momentum for behavior change and creates advocacy for a better world.

Plastic by volume and type

Annually over 500 billion disposable cups are manufactured throughout the world, resulting in millions of tonnes of plastic waste.
KeepCup is a lidded cup so there are some obvious alternatives on the market, principally thermoses and ceramic mugs, (often made of composite materials and plastics, presenting their own environmental challenges) but they do not enjoy widespread use as an alternative to disposables in to go environments.
We thought ease of use, speed of service and esthetics were some of the key reasons behind poor take up of existing reusables. Plastic was chosen for the KeepCup because it is lightweight, unbreakable and dishwasher safe. We also believe that having a product with positive colors and capable of being individualized would broaden its appeal and encourage preferred and habitual reuse. You purchase a KeepCup to be sustainable, but you use it because you enjoy the product. Our sales would support this contention. We have seen momentous behavior change sweep across Australia and New Zealand and the UK in a short period of time.

KeepCup plastic

Plastic is no less "natural" than concrete, paper, steel or any other manmade product. The issues with plastic are around chemical safety and the throwaway purpose of many plastic products.
We researched our plastics with care. Polypropylene #5 is the best food grade plastic for KeepCup due to its thermal stability. The cup is made from polypropylene, the lid from LDPE #4, the plug is a polyethylene polymer called TPU, and the thermal band is made from silicone.
The cup, lid and plug are manufactured in Victoria, Australia. The band is made and printed in China.
KeepCup has been independently tested and contains no toxins including BPA. Bisphenol A is contained in polycarbonate #7. The other plastic to avoid as reusable is PET #1. These numbers relate to the chemical compounds used to manufacture the plastic and must be displayed. KeepCups are made from polypropylene #5.
Embodied energy considers the sum total of the energy necessary for a product’s entire lifecycle. This lifecycle includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition. As a result of design and material choice, the KeepCup has very low embodied energy.
Recycling was also an important consideration in designing the KeepCup. The KeepCup is made from a single injection mold, and single material parts which means that the components can be separated for reuse and recycling. Recycling and recycled materials are important, but recycling can be expensive, both in terms of cost and impact on the environment. The principle solution to the problem is to design a product that is really reusable and fit for purpose (and that can then be recycled at the end of its life).
At KeepCup we are not just selling KeepCups we want to encourage a positive way of thinking about the world. KeepCups unmistakable and bold esthetic is a visible “green” accessory, which talks about its owner before it talks about its green credentials. KeepCups in the wild give permission for others to adopt and change to habits of reuse.
Our principal aim is not to sell KeepCups, but to get people to use KeepCups, or any other reusable product. We work closely with our manufacturers and industrial designers to improve our product and our process from and environmental point of view.

Our principal aim is not to sell KeepCups, but to get people to use KeepCups, or any other reusable product.  We work closely with our manufacturers and industrial designers to improve our product and our process from and environmental point of view.