Corn + Water + Paper = A Revolutionary
Eco-Friendly Cup

International Paper and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Receive Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 2007 Sustainability Award

Click here to read press release

Consider this . . .

Every year, Americans drink more than 100 billion cups of coffee. Of those, 14.4 billion are served in disposable paper cups— enough to wrap the earth 55 times if placed end-to-end! Those paper cups contain a plastic lining made from a petrochemical that would produce enough energy to heat 8,300 homes. That’s a town the size of Newtown, Connecticut.

A Combined Response

Because coffee consumption is expected to grow more than 10 percent annually for the next 10 years, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and International Paper decided to work together to develop a new cup that would use renewable resources and make less of an environmental impact. The result is the ecotainer™ cup –a new eco-friendly cup designed for hot beverages. It uses a lining made from corn instead of petrochemicals. Our partnership grew out of a shared set of beliefs and similar values about our responsibilities as corporate citizens, especially in understanding and minimizing our environment impact. This is the first of what we hope will be many steps toward a more sustainable future—we encourage you to use the links at the top of the page to read more and join us on our journey.

Making Progress

We've made great progress with the ecotainerTM since the launch last summer. Since then over 100 million cups have been used in the marketplace saving almost a quarter million pounds of petrochemical plastic. In addition to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, numerous other specialty coffee roasters and retailers as well as distributors have embraced the ecotainerTM line of products.

Pioneering new materials sometimes means facing and overcoming hurdles. We experienced this recently when some of Green Mountain's customers experienced issues with the 24 ounce hot cup, the largest in the product line. The higher rate of leaks is not related to defects in the material, but can be attributed to the unique geometry of this large hot cup. Although the issue percentage is small, we believe the level of leakage experienced does not align with the highest quality levels expected by our customers and ourselves. In response, we have temporarily suspended production of all of the 24 ounce hot cups and are substituting a conventional cup. All other hot cup sizes will remain available, and we will continue to work together to bring the 24 ounce hot cups back into the eco-friendly family.