A New York City icon is at risk of being replaced.
A sustainable startup thinks it can convince New Yorkers to give up the Anthora, the staple blue-and-white coffee cups used by city diners for decades. There’s no going after the Anthora’s legacy — the creators of the rival vessel are instead attacking a different aspect of its character: that plastic top.
“Say goodbye to wasteful lids with Unocup,” reads the lid-less, all-paper newcomer’s Kickstarter campaign. “Unocup is the new to-go paper coffee cup that replaces plastic lids, and creates a healthier Earth with cleaner oceans.”
The cup doesn’t have a separate lid but instead has a top that can be folded closed. Pledge rewards include cups in white and limited-edition color versions.
The Kickstarter, which is already more than halfway to its $14,500 goal, claims that New Yorkers are demoralized by the continued reign of the Anthora. “Customers desperately want a cup which they feel will contribute to waste reduction, while having no compromise to the drinking experience.”
The campaign then delves into the numbers for how much plastic waste goes into the ocean annually, claiming NYC uses enough disposable plastic lids each year to wrap around the earth more than three times.
Hong Kong native Tom Chan came up with the idea for the cups in 2015 while he was a sophomore at Cooper Union, and created 800 prototypes with his co-founder, architect and native New Yorker Kaanur Papo, Fast Company reports.
The Anthora was created by Holocaust survivor Leslie Buck, who started a paper cup company with his brother in Mount Vernon. Buck drew the design in the 1960s in an attempt to break into NYC’s Greek diners. The name derives from Buck’s accented pronunciation of a large urn, or “amphora.” The design has since become more recognizable than the Starbucks mermaid cup, with 500 million being produced annually at the cup’s peak in the ’90s.
The Anthora’s legacy has already been cemented. The design is available for purchase from one site not just as a cup for joe, but also as a watch, cuff links and change purse. The MoMa Design Store has a ceramic take for $15.
So, even if this environmental upstart is able to take on the delis, it can never take the Anthora’s place in New Yorkers’ hearts.