Bulgaria’s Cupffee wants you to eat your coffee cup

In Bulgaria, a “sustainable edibles” startup aims to reduce the mountains of waste generated by takeaway cups of coffee. Dubbed Cupffee, the company has developed a material from oat bran, wheat flour, sugar and oil that will not leak and can be eaten once you’ve fulfilled your morning caffeine fix.

“[Cupffee] remains crunchy for 40 minutes and does not leak for 12 hours,” CEO Miroslav Zapryanov told FoodNavigator. The cups also don’t affect the taste of the beverage.

Conventional coffee cups are often rendered unrecyclable by layers added for heat and water resistance.

Cupffee recently received a €1.3 million grant from the European Innovation Council to help expand sales. It also recently closed a €500,000 pre-seed investment round.