Coffee Stick: Innovative Design Or Eco Waste?

The Yanko Design site always does a good job of collating the most provoking design concepts. Recently they published the work of Heo Jeong Im. Im has created a coffee stick that partly dissolves in hot water to leave a stirrer. The coffee sticks would come in various options including Cappuccino and Americano. When you place the stick in a cup and stir with hot water, a coffee drink will get created.

Sure, it’s cute – but is the thinking progressive? There are several reasons to think that this is a poor approach. For example, coffee drinkers seem to be avoiding the manufactured and are more wrapped up with getting both as close to the raw product and direct to the source as possible. There is also rising concern about the waste around natural goods into factory created products (think bottled water as an early example). And what happens to the stirrer after consumption and why doesn’t a reusable spoon do the job better? I think that more progressive consumers would consider this an unhealthy, eco waste.

At PSFK we are always looking for products that create debate and challenge ideas. We’re not too sure that Im’s concept is well thought through but we commend him for the way he demonstrates his thinking.