Consumers around the world are churning through an estimated 300 billion single-use plastic coffee cup lids every year – or around 1.5 million tonnes of waste.
While the ideal solution to this would be for all of us to buy reusable keep cups, there are many circumstances where single-use paper coffee cups are unavoidable.
In Scandinavia, inventors Lars Bendix and Håkan Löfholm have found a solution to the plastic lids challenge – creating the Liplid a timber-based lid that fits inside the cup, rather than on top of it. Not only is this more helpful for the environment, but the solution improves the stability and drinking experience of on-the-go beverages. The Liplids leak less, and are resistant to spills with their risk of scalding.
Bendix and Löfholm’s company UniCup Scandinavia – which has been developing products for on-the-go food and beverages for more than two decades – has created the bio-based Liplids from spruce and pine after additional input from the Research Institute of Sweden, where the lids will be manufactured.
The idea for the product came to Bendix and Löfholm when they were enjoying a cup of coffee in Stockholm. They sketched the concept down on a paper napkin.
“We have developed an environmentally friendly lid that sits inside the cup,” the pair explains.
“You drink from the rim of the cup instead of the lid, so you don’t burn yourself and it doesn’t taste like plastic or paper. The coffee tastes just like it does in your coffee cup at home.”
With plastic lids set to be banned in the EU in coming years, the Liplid is already attracting attention.
“We are already seeing that there’s a large market for Liplid,” says Jesper Berthold, CEO of UniCup Scandinavia AB.
“We are in contact with major chains that are very interested in purchasing it.”
