Water-Resistant Cardboard Cups

Finnish company, 'Kotkamills,' has developed a range of eco-friendly disposable cups that hope to change the way we package food products.

Typically, food packaging requires a layer of polyethylene (which contains fluorochemicals) to make the cardboard moisture-resistant. The use of this chemical makes recycling difficult and expensive, in addition to the fact that fluorochemicals have been known to cause many cancers.

With this new technology, Kotkamills is able to make moisture-resistant food packaging that can hold soft drinks and hot beverages for more than two days. In addition, these new eco-friendly disposable cups can hold alcoholic beverages for over two hours (quite a good period of time considering 39% of disposable cups now have the same or shorter lifespan). The result is a totally recyclable product that has already received certification in Germany, Norway, the UK and Finland.