18.07.2019, 11:33
Supporting Female Coffee Producers
Bartlett Mitchell has launched Huskup, an eco-friendly reusable coffee cup that will support the community that produces the caterer’s premium coffee brand, Perkee.
The biodegradable and microwavable Perkee Foundation Huskup cup is manufactured with a premium, ceramic-like finish from rice husk instead of plastic (which is now widely acknowledged for its adverse impact on wildlife and ocean habitats) and recycles a byproduct of rice farming which is available in abundance but usually burned – rice cultivators are estimated to discard some 125 million tonnes of husk eevery year.
Unlike plastic, these cups are biodegradable and can ultimately return to the soil at the end of their life, taking just 90 days in an industrial composting plant to fully break down.
The Perkee coffee brand is a collaboration with female-run co-operative Soppexcca in Nicaragua. When the company learned that the women who rake the coffee beans during harvest refer to the rest of the year as ‘skinny season’ due to their seasonal employment, it pledged to help through sales of its new reusable cup.
The huskup design and packaging was developed by Lauren Gillon, Bartlett Mitchell designer, and is based on a print created by the Casa Tres Mundos printmaker in Grenada.Â
Wendy Bartlett and Lin Dickens, marketing director, met the artist who created the the print at the Casa Tres Mundos studio when visiting the Soppexcca Coperative in Granada, Nicaragua, last year.
The House of the Three Worlds Foundation (Casa Tres Mundos) is an institution that promotes, supports and promotes cultural projects in Nicaragua and Central America. Along with these artistic, musical and educational activities, whose emphasis is aimed at supporting the vulnerable in Nicaraguan society, the Foundation coordinates a rural development project in Malacatoya.
All profits from the sales of the Perkee Foundation Huskup cup will contribute to building a biscuit factory in Nicaragua that will give the Soppexcca women the opportunity for a year-round income.
Dickens says:
“Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, both at Bartlett Mitchell and at Perkee. That’s why we chose to partner with the Soppexca co-operative and with that came a responsibility to support the many individuals who work hard each season to provide us with our fantastic coffee beans.
“The Perkee Foundation Huskup cup not only supports these incredible women to earn an income all year, it helps us and our customers to cut our use of plastics with a truly sustainable alternative. It’s win-win.”