Like many countries around the world, Australia is transitioning towards a circular economy with single use plastic bans being legislated across all Australian states.
Australian Christian Resources (ACR), being borne of a desire to provide high quality, sustainable Christian resources, approached BioPak, the sustainability experts to help create the world’s first plastic-free Communion Cup. They were eager to be first to market and create a product that was both aesthetically pleasing (matching the simple beauty of the communion trays) while also espousing their Christian beliefs of “Caring for Creation” by being made from a sustainable resource, not plastic.
The Challenge
BioPak were thrilled to be approached by ACR to develop the first plastic free Communion Cup.
There were a number of considerations to think about when creating the cup. There were existing standard communion cup trays made of wood or metal, so the cup needed to be similar in shape, size and weight to the existing plastic communion cups to neatly fit into these trays. The cup needed to contain the same amount of fluid and have a fill-line for consistent pouring.
The Solution
The BioPak team tried and tested many different material types and settled on bagasse as the best option for this purpose:
Bagasse (also known as sugarcane pulp) is a rapidly renewable resource and a by-product of the sugarcane refining industry. It is an abundant agricultural by-product with more than 54 million tonnes produced each year (source). Given it is a waste-product, its carbon footprint is very low. During sugarcane growth, atmospheric carbon is captured by the plant and converted to biomass.
Bagasse, being a naturally occurring fibre, is home-compostable, but also can be industrially composted or recycled (if not contaminated with food waste).
The Communion Cup can be part of a fully circular solution. Once used and composted, the cup can be turned back into nutrient-rich soil to grow more sugarcane or other plants.
Given the Australian government’s commitment to expanding the residential composting infrastructure, more people will have access to composting facilities in the coming years making it even easier for churches to compost the cups.
With plastic cups already banned in Western Australia, it is anticipated that the compostable Holy Communion Cups will be adopted quickly by the church community, with many already pre-ordering the innovative product.
The Result
The Compostable Communion Cups will be arriving in November 2022 and are available to order via the ACR website.
