Hello everyone!
By now, you all must be wondering what the heck we are up to with that returnable, refillable stainless cup idea we tantalized you with months ago. And we are thrilled to report, the stainless cups are incredibly close to becoming a reality!
We are targeting August/ September for a launch date at River Valley Market! Yahoo!
So here’s what we’ve been up to all those months since the survey! Thanks to your enthusiastic feedback on our survey last fall, we were awarded the grant to trial this project. And... that feels like a long time ago now! We had originally hoped that the cups would be on the shelf at River Valley Market by now, but as with many projects where you need to build the path as you walk it, there have been delays, and wrong turns, and a lot of head-scratching puzzles. And many, many exciting successes to keep us going!
Last spring, an excellent team of industrial engineering majors at UMASS completed their lifecycle analysis, which determined that a stainless container needs to be used less than 10 times in order to be a better ecological choice than plastic. This is great news, as metals are energy-intensive to produce. But they are durable! We expect that the average stainless container will be refilled 50-100 times, making the lifecycle impact of each cup 10- 20% of plastic! And that is before we consider retirement programs (freezer containers? drinking vessels?) and eventual recycling into more stainless steel.
The container we will be using is a lovely, durable, off-the-shelf cup made of 18-8 stainless, the gold-standard material for dairy processing and packaging. The fact that it is already in production and not custom made, means the cost is much lower than we expected, and thus the deposit will be only $5 - half of the original estimate!
What we couldn’t find was a 32oz cup that met our needs. We looked at several other sizes – 40oz (ugly, bad proportions, doesn’t fit in your hand), 32oz (had to be custom made and therefore would be twice as expensive) and finally settled on a 25oz container. The height and the rim diameter are very close to our current 32 oz cups, which means it works with our existing packing line- requiring even fewer change parts than the switch from 32 oz to 6 oz!
Yes, it’s smaller than a 32oz container, but it will be priced accordingly. It is also quite elegant in its proportions, and fits even in a smaller person’s hand. The foil seal is more robust than the foil on our current plastic cups and thus will not require a separate plastic lid. Think an extra large version of our single-serve cups, with printing directly on the foil.
“But how do I put a half-eaten container of yogurt back in my fridge?”, you say. We are currently working on a tight-fitting silicone or rubber lid for resealing the container, which will be an improvement on the fit of our 32 oz cups and lids. The current 32 oz plastic lid also fits these cups, though more loosely, so don’t turn it upside down!
Working with these cups over the past year, we have been charmed by their elegance and durability. When you hold one in your hand it becomes possible to imagine a future where plastic waste is no longer the norm; where instead our food arrives in a package that respects the contents, our land and oceans, and our grandchildren. And if everything works - if you decide you like the container and all the logistics turn out to be practical, it will be very easy for other companies to get on board.
Stay tuned for updates- we're getting close!
Thanks for all your support!
The Sidehill Farm Yogurt Stainless Cup Team
(and many thanks to James Lombino, our engineer, and Juliet Jacobson, our graphic designer for all their hours of work and enthusiasm for this project!)
