Coffee cups go compostable

It’s a subtle change at St. Paul’s donut counter.

On Sunday mornings, the coffee flows at St. Paul. It’s a comfort, a treat, a warm-up on chilly days to have a cup of coffee in hand while enjoying a donut and conversation.

The white disposable cups mostly go unnoticed – except for the eyes and minds of the St. Paul Environmental Team. They knew that when they went in the trash, it would take a long time for them to decompose. So they started on a journey to find a better alternative to help take better care of this beautiful planet.

They explored the possibilities of members providing their own coffee cups, or recruiting a team of volunteers to wash our kitchen china cups on Sunday mornings. Those weren’t quite the right solutions.

Instead, they focused on finding disposable, yet compostable cups. Something that is compostable more easily breaks down, without anything synthetic left behind.

They ordered a few sets of trial cups – they weren’t so great.

Then, member Heather Gosma told Jules Irish about a company that made cups out of 100 percent renewable resources. Made in Missouri, the cups are lined with a plant-based coating, and have a corrugated outer wall that forms air pockets to protect hands from the heat of coffee.

With thumbs up from users so far, watch for these brown compostable cups as you pour your Sunday morning coffee.