“They look like paper, but they actually have a thin layer of plastic on the inside.” That’s the problem with your coffee cup. Starbucks sells about 6 billion of those cups a year. And that only represents one percent of the market. Now Starbucks and McDonald’s have teamed up to build a better cup. “But even with these companies’ vast resources, it’s proving to be a really big challenge. Starbucks has already tried out 13 prototypes in the past year.” (This is why I always ask baristas to pour the java directly into my mouth.)

+ If you missed it last week, this is Why It Took Dunkin’ Donuts 10 Years to Build the Perfect New Cup.

+ The Conversation: We are guinea pigs in a worldwide experiment on microplastic.