Reimagining coffee on-the-go: Winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge announced

06 Mar 2019 --- We may be one step closer to “solving” the single-use coffee cup problem as The NextGen Consortium, convened by Closed Loop Partners, has announced the winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge. The competition was a global innovation challenge to redesign the fiber to-go cup and create a widely recyclable and/or compostable cup. These 12 winning solutions – broadly categorized into innovative cup liners, new materials and reusable cup service models – have the potential to turn the 250 billion fiber to-go cups used annually from waste into a valuable material in the recycling system.

The cup challenge is the first initiative of the NextGen Consortium, which is a multi-year, multi-industry global consortium which aims to advance the design, commercialization and recovery of food packaging alternatives. Both the Consortium and Challenge are managed by Closed Loop Partners, with Starbucks and McDonald’s as Founding Partners, The World Wildlife Fund (WFF) as an Advisory Partner, The Coca-Cola Company and Yum! Brands as Supporting Partners alongside Nestlé.

After a “rigorous” four-month review process by an esteemed group of judges including NextGen Consortium business leaders, as well as experts in recycling, composting and packaging, the Challenge narrowed the nearly 500 submissions from over 50 countries down to 12 winners. 

The crux of the problem with disposable coffee cups is that although they are technically recyclable, the polyethylene (PE) plastic film that protects the paperboard from liquid needs to be recycled separately. Even in more recent generations of coffee cups where the plastic films have been replaced with a bio-based alternative, the recycling process is still complex and can hinder sustainable progress. 

These companies are rethinking the polyethylene plastic liners in cups that can currently make to-go cups difficult to recycle.

The winners of the challenge 
C.E.E.R. SCHISLER, France: Creates a 100 percent paper cup that is home compostable and recyclable.
Colombier Group, Netherlands and Finland: Creates a recyclable and compostable barrier for paperboard cups.
Footprint US: Creates cups, lids and straws that are fully formed fiber-based solutions, with an aqueous-based coating that is recyclable and compostable.
Kotkamills Oy, Finland: Creates plastic-free, recyclable and compostable cupstock material that can be processed into cups at existing cup making machines.
PTT MCC Biochem Company Limited, Thailand: Creates a coated paper cup that is recyclable and home compostable.
Solenis LLC, US, Belgium: Creates a barrier coating that is recyclable and compostable.
Sun Chemical Corporation, US: Creates inks and coatings that are recyclable and compostable.
WestRock Corporation, US: Creates a recyclable and compostable paperboard solution to cups.

As the vast number of disposable coffee cups ending up in landfill – 99 percent according to some estimates – attracted notable public attention in the past year, the industry has set its sights on sourcing alternatives. 

A dominating theme among the winning innovations was the notion of a recyclable and compostable cup that is entirely fiber-based.

The NextGen Challenge winner solutions are advancing the transition to a more circular economy where materials are continuously cycled and reliance on raw materials is reduced.  

“By working across the entire value chain and engaging key stakeholders, winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge are tackling a complex problem holistically, sending valuable material back into the supply chain - benefiting people, the planet and businesses,” says Erin Simon, Director, Sustainability R&D, World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Up to six winners will enter the NextGen Circular Business Accelerator, where they'll gain access to a network of experts, business and technical resources and testing opportunities to ensure these innovations can successfully scale to serve the needs of the industry and maintain the performance standards we know and trust.

The Challenge is just the first stage of the NextGen Consortium's three-year effort. Next, the NextGen Circular Business Accelerator, with testing and piloting opportunities, will help solutions get onto shelves. Furthermore, the Consortium is working with suppliers, recyclers and composters to ensure that the winning solutions can get successfully recovered for the highest value. The Consortium will also work together to support the needs of the recycling and composting system and identify ways to make it easy for consumers to choose the right bin.

“The level of interest we saw in the Challenge demonstrates a real appetite for long-lasting, sustainable packaging solutions,” says Kate Daly, Executive Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “This level of industry collaboration in support of the NextGen Cup Challenge is really exciting, and we look forward to building on this momentum to encourage more innovative solutions. Fully recoverable fiber to-go cups are just the beginning.”

Before the winners were announced, PackagingInsights spoke to runner-up Irish company Butterfly Cup. The Butterfly Cup is the “world’s first” 100 percent plastic-free and fully recyclable all-in-one coffee cup. As a start-up, the company launched its commercial product 14 months ago and is currently a supplier to three cup manufacturers, with three more in the pipeline. This is across ten countries including Germany, Japan, the US, UK and South Africa. 

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