The Kill the Cup campaign encourages students to submit photos of themselves with their reusable coffee cups (Image: Drew Beal)
I used to 
work in an office, and every day my co-workers would do the same thing: wake up, go to work, and get coffee – and every day in a disposable cup! I couldn’t understand it. At the time, I wasn’t necessarily on the “environmental bandwagon,” but from a simple efficiency standpoint, this seemed like a waste of resources. When I was preparing for business school, I read Cradle to Cradle (North Point Press, 2002) and it made me rethink wasteful consumer habits.
Americans throw away 50 billion paper cups every year, which equals 800 million pounds of waste and 12.5 million pounds of CO2 emissions. The situation grows dire when you take into account the polystyrene cups and lids, which are not recyclable or biodegradable, and that this type of plastic is a likely carcinogen, especially when heated (learn more about this and efforts by Dunkin’ Donuts and Dell to switch here).
Making a Game of Ditching Disposable Coffee Cups
Without ‘Kill The Cup’, college campuses could look like this (Image: Brittany Hardin)
So it was during my MBA program that I came up with the concept for “Kill the Cup” – a social media-inspired game that offered prizes and rewards to coffee drinkers who shared photos posing with their reusable coffee cups. We worked with campus coffee shops to measure the impact. After just eight weeks, we saw a triple-bottom line increase – less waste, more profits, and more excitement around sustainability.
Fast-forward 18 months… Our team is preparing to launch the inaugural “Kill the Cup University Challenge,” a four-week U.S.-wide contest to motivate as many students as possible to switch their disposable coffee cups to reusable mugs. Participating schools include Boston University, NYU, University of Michigan, Georgetown University, University of San Diego, among others.
Students Win Prizes for Switching to Reusable Mugs
Students, faculty and staff will be encouraged to bring their own reusable cups to campus coffee locations and upload photos of themselves to Kill The Cup.com Student ambassadors at each university will then track the progress and popularity of their campaigns. The teams that generate the greatest improvements in environmental awareness and reducing waste will be eligible for $5,000 in grants to fund their own social impact projects.
Through Reusable Cups, We Are Empowering The Next Generation Of Change Makers – Starbucks Take Note
The rate of reusable coffee cup use has been a point of interest for many national coffee retailers, including Starbucks, which has set a 2015 goal of achieving a 5% reuse rate. But reported figures from 2012 and 2013 have been only 1.5% and 1.8% respectively. This is pretty sad. If we’re serious about changing behavior, we have to do it ourselves and make it fun and engaging. While we’re reducing waste from disposable coffee cups with the latest Kill the Cup effort, we’re also hopefully providing young adults with the skills and inspiration needed to solve the waste problems of tomorrow.
How about you? Ready to Kill the Cup? Tell us more about your experience ditching disposables and carrying a reusable one instead.
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Another “hook” for gaining enormous collegiate interest in not polluting by tossing disposable coffee cups, would be a CRAZY ADS contest. What was a universal rage in the 60s would work wonders today with fake ads imprinted on reusable cups. The humor would captivate and spread worldwide. Some examples are:
These CRAZY ADS that I wrote were posted on hundreds of New York subway ad racks in the 1960s. Johnny Carson featured them on the TONIGHT SHOW. And licensing humorous ads to bus companies across America soon became a very profitable enterprise. For more info, visit: http://abelraisescain.com/about_alan_abel_media_hoaxer.htm
Great idea! Why not expand it to include those of us who are no longer college students?
We’ll drink to that, Jim (Here’s a pic of us doing so:) https://www.facebook.com/WeHateToWaste?ref=tn_tnmn )
Well now I really wish I was still in college.
Love it. Great idea, great campaign!
Hi James and Jeremy, thanks for checking out the post. I appreciate the positive feedback. And yes, we have plans to expand the program to celebrate ALL reusable cup behavior (not just college students) — I’ll be sure to fill you in when we move beyond college campuses!
This campaign is amazing! Just one of the problems we have to fix. If California can ban the plastic bag, then stuff like this can happen too. Amazing!
Disposable cups really irritate me – they look like they should be recyclable, they’re paper right! No. But many people still try to recycle them. I love my Keep Cup- once you get used to using it, it just become a habit. And now I actually prefer using it. It’s lightweight, keeps my beverage hot for up to an hour and a half and comes in all sort of fun colours and designs! Plus I don’t burn my hand. Keep cups are dishwasher safe, recyclable at the end of their life and only take the equivalent of 20 disposable coffee cups to produce! I really am obsessed with it! So kudos to you, Drew – hopefully more and more people will be discovering the joys of Keep Cups and other reusable mugs!
Hi Beth, glad to hear you’re such a fan of Keep Cups! They really are a great company. In fact, KeepCup has stepped up and partnered with Kill the Cup to help promote the University Challenge. For the entire month of October, you can use the promo code KILLTHECUP to receive 10% any KeepCup purchases — and the best part is that 30% of sales will go to Kill the Cup!
So if you or anyone you know is looking for a new reusable, be sure to share the KILLTHECUP promo code. Hope it helps 🙂
Great news!!! Thanks!
Hello All,
Just a note that we are totally delighted with all the social media sharing this post is getting. I suspect it suggests that Drew has come up with a totally dynamite idea that resonates well with college age Facebookers and many others. A simple thing to do (post your selfie), with a now well-established solution (reusable cup) to something that really disturbs folks (disposable coffee cups). And a little college rivalry thrown in never hurts! I trust this suggests that the launch soon of the actual Kill the Cup campaign will be a booming success.
Thanks again, Drew, for sharing this with us here at WeHateToWaste. – Jacquie O
This is a really important and also a really simple way to help reduce waste. I’m excited to see the traction Kill the Cup builds for this movement across the country that all major coffee shops (Starbucks, etc) should implement.
Unfortunate that Starbucks still uses & tosses a cup even to make the drink for the reusable cup!
It’s awesome how you refer to college students as the “next generation of changemakers”. Knowing that when I use a reusable cup i am not only making a positive change for the environment but also making a positive social change by encouraging my peers to bring their own cup is the main reason I choose to bring mine everywhere with me. It is extremely satisfying when people tell me how they began brinGing their reusable mug with them because they saw me carrying mine every day with me. YAY Kill The Cup!!! We love you.
Drew,
I’m Andrew, yer bizarro brother! Same thing happened to me, which is how I invented sililids, our platinum silicone cup lid that turns any cup into a travel cup or to go cup (i used to be an editor by i was so f-d off about paper cups, my mind went into solution mode)
I should tell u I am about to launch my replacement for the ziplock and sous vide bag on indiegogo, and have an awesome replacement for the plastic water bottle coming out too, and if u hate waste u will love the fact that we have created a way to turn old platinum silicone products into new ones fouling no water or air
I will post links and thanks for what you are doing!
peace n luv
andrew stromotich
silisolutions.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hHuh1G34Bc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNMR-XZw4p4
https://vimeo.com/108058274
https://vimeo.com/108068723
i should tell u we r open source and we sent lids on mason jars, with straws and on starbucks reusable cups to the company as an invitation to stop using polyethelene lined cups and polystyrene lids as they r so bad.
I don’t like the way they do business, but i still want them to do the right thing, and they were intrigued, so here’s hoping they do the right thing!
I used to plow through about 3 cups of coffee a day on campus. Tossing my paper cups left and right. It was not until I was introduced to a re-useable Keep Cup that I decided to change my ways. Now I never leave home without it when heading to University.
Great work Drew! Thanks for stepping up to do something. I would also highly recommend everyone to read Cradle to Cradle.
Glad to see this project is gaining traction among multiple universities. I think it’s really important to encourage young people to use new grassroots techniques to get their peers to change wasteful behavior. Great work, Drew.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to see this idea taking off, Drew, and that one of my alma maters (Michigan) is participating! Go Blue! Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I dream of a day when we no longer see unnecessary disposable food packaging litter in our streets and polluting the natural environment. Projects like Kill the Cup make me think that maybe there is a chance that day will come during my lifetime. Thank you!
Thanks for all the positive feedback, everyone! Checking in with a quick update on the inaugural Kill Cup University Challenge.
The campaign is off to a strong start: 250+ people have sent photos in the first week, and thousands more have showed up with their reusable cup at participating coffee shops!
If you want to read about the student ambassadors leading the charge at each university, check out some of these recent articles:
– Loyola: http://www.loyolaphoenix.com/kill-cup
– Miami: http://miamioh.edu/news/campus-news/2014/10/kill-the-cup.html
– Michigan: http://www.michigandaily.com/news/competition-aimed-increasing-sustainability-awareness-campus
– San Marcos: http://csusmchronicle.com/2014/10/students-lead-program-that-reduces-waste-from-coffee-runs.html
We’ve been loving the show of support on social media. Thanks again to everyone for sharing their thoughts and experiences with regards to reusable cups. Have a great weekend!
I constantly beg members of my family to not use disposable cups. At the very least, I suggest that they REUSE them. I went on a trip recently and forgot my travel mug and was forced to use a paper cup with plastic lid for my tea while on the road. But I used that thing until it had holes in it. Literally, it started to leak. I felt less guilty about the waste when I composted the rotting cup in my bin at home. As for the #6 lid, my local transfer station accepts this type of plastic for recycling. Still, it is a total waste and I try to repress all of the disposable cups I have consumed in my lifetime before being “in the know.”
I’m with you, Jenny. I keep a few disposable cups and lids on hand that I’ve washed out just to use again — perhaps to send a guest off with a cup of tea who doesn’t have a reusable of their own, something like that. I can’t imagine there’s any real risk of them not being ‘clean enough’ or contaminated. So getting the extra use helps.
But what I also do, is that a I carry a couple of cardboard sleeves in my purse so on the rare occasion that I buy coffee in a disposable, at least I can pull out the sleeve. What does it take to carry one around? Almost nothing!
Jenny, I know exactly how you feel. Whenever I’m caught in a compromising situation (that is.. when I’m without a reusable cup!), the memory ends up haunting me. I remember this five-week period in 2013 when I ended up using three disposable coffee cups. (Pretty sad, right?)
I am really glad to hear that your community accepts #6 plastic. There’s still so much work to do on educating consumers about what can/can’t be recycled or composted. I’m sure there are a few items that I don’t realize I’m disposing of improperly.
Love the idea of keeping extra cardboard sleeves in your bag. Good one, Jacquie!
A few years ago Starbucks sponsored a reusable cup design contest through. There were some great designs submitted, and I believe a winner was actually chosen. But then nothing ever came of it. The Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and McDonalds of the world need to be active participants in this campaign. Especially Dunkin’ Donuts, because, really? Styrofoam in this day and age?!
Yes, Connie, I believe Starbucks completed a White Cup Contest earlier this year. And you’re right, I’m not sure what ended up coming of it. I am interested to see what Starbucks’ reusable rate is for 2014. When they introduced the $1 reusable cup in 2013, I expected it to result in a decent uptick in the percentage of drinks served in reusable cups. But it only increased from 1.5% to 1.8%. Do you think events like the White Cup art contest are effective at inspiring reusable cup behavior?
I believe the “convenient factor” is ruling people’s lives too much. It is simply convenient for people to not worry about carrying a reusable cup for them. I believe educating people on the impact of this behavior would help to understand that sometimes a little bit of effort can go a long way. I mean how hard is it to remember your reusable cup every morning! You don’t have to remember to wear your shoes!
Anyways, great campaign and great job on this! Looking forward to seeing the results!
Here’s the problem… It’s still “cool” to get coffee in disposable cups. Look at the waste happening in this series of images alone:
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/eddie-murphy-and-his-girlfriend-love-coffee-215231542.html. Seeing as how the masses worship and imitate whatever celebrities do (even the ones who have gotten bad press), if Hollywood doesn’t step up to the plate and KILL THE CUP, this race is going to be a struggle.
Hello everybody! Friday marked the final day of the four-week Kill the Cup University Challenge. In total, we received over 2,200 photos from 1,260+ cup-killers at eight universities across the country. You can view the photos on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/killthecup) and Picasa gallery (https://picasaweb.google.com/KillTheCupUniversityChallenge)
We’ll spend the next few weeks gathering data from campus coffee shops, and check back on Nov 23 to report the overall impact of the program, as well as announce the grand prize winners. Keep on reusin’!
Congratulations Drew, and to the rest of the Kill The Cup team! A truly commendable effort. It was fun to be a part of – looking forward to seeing what’s next!
I want to applaud Drew’s work and efforts, as it has created a dramatic shift in social behavior I have never been witness to before; establishing a new baseline of sustainable social norm is the right way to go!
As someone who carries around a weighty glass bottle everywhere, I have realized a few things about why I keep lugging it around. My glass bottle is unique and fits me perfectly in terms of physical size and the volume of liquid it holds. My bottle feels as though it was personally designed for me and I would be a little saddened if I ever parted with it. Disposable cups do not elicit such a response, instead they are cheap and depleted of value once they have been used. Could there be a strategy in which there are incentives for those who have creatively personalized their reusable cups to increase their perceived individual value?
What a great campaign! I religiously bring my reusable coffee to-go mug with me every morning to class but I have noticed that I am the only one in my classes without a disposable cup. I am a student at Bucknell University and the school has recognized that disposable coffee cups are a major source of waste on campus. The administration now sells stickers to put on your reusable mugs that qualify you for a discount but this has not seemed to have caught on. I would love to see this campaign brought to my university to raise awareness and create change. Students need to be more aware of the amount of waste that they are accumulating through their daily beverage consumption on campus. Such a simple lifestyle change can make such an impact!
This is such a great idea! As a member of my university’s recycling crew, one of the largest sources of my grief was disposable coffee cups. Students would constantly throw disposable coffee cups, which were often partially filled, into paper or cardboard recycling bins. This not only created a huge mess, it also ended up soiling all of the actual recyclable materials. So, disposable coffee cups were not only causing a huge trash problem, they were also reducing the university’s recycling rates. I think a social media campaign like Kill the Cup may be a great way for the university to bring attention to this issue, so I’ll be sure to tell the current recycling crew to check out the website!
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This is a great campaign that should be started at universities around the world, becauses they are the models for change. As a recent university graduate, I know first hand it is very hard to convince administration and food contracting companies to even being these types of initiatives. However, using social media to generate excitement around this takes us a step further from just reusing water bottles to reusable coffee mugs. Great initiative!