Rebuild Forests with Plantable Coffee Cup

We all love coffee. Period.

What we don’t like is the fact that each coffee cup we use contributes to the pile of waste in landfills. Americans are the leading coffee drinkers worldwide, consuming up to 400 million cups daily (or 146 billion cups annually).

Buying a coffee contained in a disposable cup means contributing to about 23 lbs. of waste every year. Not to mention, Styrofoam is not an entirely recyclable material it’ll be in the landfills for over 500 years.

Sure, merchants can introduce recyclable cups. But, are these enough? Will these be able to reduce the amount of Styro cups in the landfills? No, more so since recyclable cups can only be used three times before they end up in wastelands as well.

Here comes the good news – plantable coffee cups!

A Kickstarter project, spearheaded by an eco-startup in San Luis Obispo, aims to turn your coffee cups into trees. Dubbed as ‘The World’s First Plantable Coffee Cup,’ Reduce. Reuse. Grow., the brains behind the project, wants to manufacture paper cups embedded with native seeds. You simply need to soak the cup in water for 5 minutes and plant it afterward.

The best part is, the cup may contain seeds that are native to a particular region, avoiding the existence of invasive plants in the process. You need not attend a tree planting Philippines event to know how to plant the cups. Instructions on how to plant the paper are detailed at the bottom of the cup, too.

Coffee drinkers may plant the cups themselves in their backyards or a local park. They may also place them on Reduce. Reuse. Grow.-marked trash bins, which will be then transferred to specific reforestation locations.

Alternatively, a third-party organization may collect the cups and plant them for local reforestation initiatives; a more appropriate move since producing these containers involves mowing down of trees. Don’t worry if the cups are thrown away because they are 100% biodegradable; these can be completely biodegraded in just 180 days.

The coffee cups are currently in the prototype form. The project will come to fruition once it reached the $10,000 goal. As of this writing, nonetheless, the project had already garnered more than $21,000. The cups will be delivered to local coffee shops. Each cup will cost about $.02 per cup.

Plantable is not such a new idea. In fact, there are plantable wedding invitations, plantable greeting cards, and plantable gift wrappers. There are also plantable pencils, courtesy of Sprout.

Apparently, this project is a perfect way to tackle the problem that haunts the worldwide coffee industry while breathing new life to trees. And the compostable coffee cup is just the starting point as there are many other seed-filling opportunities.

Let’s drink to that!

Inspiring Nature Quotes - How to Invite Nature Into Your Life

Have you been in any homes in Laguna? Have you seen how these homes are so close to nature you can literally breathe it? Indeed, there are several perks to being one with nature. Perhaps, the nature quotes below will inspire you in inviting nature into your life.

The purpose of life is undoubtedly to know oneself. We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. The sum-total of that life is God. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~Hans Christian Andersen

On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it. ~Jules Renard

Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction. ~E. O. Wilson

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. ~Dale Carnegie

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. ~Gerard De Nerval

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. ~Pedro Calderon de la Barca

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. ~Helen Keller

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. ~Henry David Thoreau

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~John Burroughs

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun. I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one. ~Edna St. Vincent Millay

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon the verdant green hills is the most perfect refreshment. ~Jane Austin

I myself am quite absorbed by the delicate yellow, delicate soft green, delicate violet of a ploughed and weeded piece of soil. ~Vincent van Gogh

I am in love with the green earth. ~Charles Lamb

Sounds of the wind or sounds of the sea make me happy just to be. ~June Polis

Nature is the art of God. ~Dante Alighieri

Man is not himself only... He is all that he sees; all that flows to him from a thousand sources... He is the land, the lift of its mountain lines, the reach of its valleys. ~Mary Austin

We inter-breath with the rain forests, we drink from the oceans. They are part of our own body. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ~William Shakespeare

Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation. ~Charles Cook

There is something of the marvelous in all things of nature. ~Aristotle

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful. ~E.E. Cummings

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran

It was in the forest that I found "the peace that passeth understanding." ~Jane Goodall

Wisdom begins in wonder. ~Socrates

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth. ~Walt Whitman

I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such beings as crawl on earth. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Never a day passes but that I do myself the honor to commune with some of nature's varied forms. ~George Washington Carver

As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can. ~John Muir