"Overseas Black Technology" is a series of overseas columns launched by Chuangye.com, which will take you to experience the latest overseas technologies, the coolest products, and the most interesting applications.
Whether it is for technology giants or small start-ups, the most popular and interesting direction at the moment is environmental protection.
From new energy vehicles that save energy and reduce emissions to artificial meat that reduces the negative impact of animal breeding on the environment, it can be seen that environmental protection issues are imminent.
Among them, the plastic pollution caused by disposable utensils used for takeout is particularly prominent.
About 8.25 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean every year. This type of plastic waste takes 1 million years to decompose and will cause serious harm to the earth. According to rough estimates, New York City alone uses enough disposable plastic cup lids to circle the earth more than three times each year.
The environmental protection plan for disposable drinks is also in progress. For example, Starbucks, McDonald's, HiTea are all trying to replace plastic straws with paper straws.
Today, the take-away cup style for milk tea and coffee was invented in the 1960s and consists of two parts: the cup body and the lid. In fact, this style is now somewhat outdated, and one part is enough.
In 2015, feeling the seriousness of garbage pollution, the Unocup team officially began to study how to alleviate the problem of plastic pollution in paper cups, mainly starting with plastic cup lids.
Unocup is a new type of take-out paper coffee cup . It eliminates the plastic lid and has a more fashionable shape. The most important thing is that it can urgently satisfy consumers who do not want to affect the drinking experience and can also contribute to environmental protection. New demand for contributions.
With a fully tested patented design, the excess paper material on the upper part of the Unocup can be folded to form a lid, which is not only convenient for taking, drinking, and preventing spills, but is also more environmentally friendly and lower cost.
The operation of the folding cup lid is very simple, just fold the three extra parts inward and interlock with each other.
When opening, gently apply force on the lid. There is no potential danger and it can be shaken, stirred and used normally.
Unocup also has an ergonomic design. The unique shape fits the palm of your hand better and is easier to grab. The structure of the cup body and lid combined into one will also be more stable in the face of external pressure.
In particular, Unocup’s slightly convex curved drinking spout is designed to fit the curve of the lips. Traditional plastic cup lids generally have a hard opening, which makes the use experience unnatural. Unocup has created the most comfortable and smooth drinking spout for consumers. Somatosensory.
If you don’t like it, the lid of the Unocup can also be folded back to return to drinking from the rim like an ordinary cup.
The backward-folded Unocup also means that baristas can use it directly to make latte art. In fact, some baristas have said that due to its unique shape, it is easier to make good-looking latte art.
You know, saving a plastic cup lid is a small thing, but it is still very fulfilling to help the earth get rid of the tens of millions of pounds of plastic waste produced every year. Moreover, although the idea seems simple, it is not easy to make it useful and durable.
The Unocup team has made nearly 800 adjustments since the first model in 2015, mainly optimizing the mass production of existing cup-making machinery. Once put into production, it will save a lot of cost resources in manufacturing, storage and transportation.
If you feel that white paper cups are boring, Unocup is also ready to cooperate with New York artist Alexis Candela to customize high-quality exclusive patterns.
Various animals are combined in a surreal way, inviting consumers to participate in thinking about the connection between humans and nature.
At present, Unocup has gradually attracted attention, winning the "New Plastics Economy Innovation prize" in the international design competition organized by Open IDEO and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and has also been featured on the BBC , Fast Company and National Geographic magazine.
Although it still requires efforts to put it into mass production, it is worthy of recognition for enhancing environmental awareness, and it coincides with the idea of paper straws.
Perhaps Unocup can become a street trend with its design style and practicality. With improvements, Unocup is not necessarily only used to hold coffee. In China, it is more marketable to hold milk tea and deliver food.
