Unbleached paper coffee cups

November 30, 2006 7:09 AM

Is there a place (online or real-world) to buy unbleached (brown) paper coffee cups, say 100-500 of them? No logos or design on them, just straight unbleached paper cups, 16-24oz.

This apparently is harder than it seems. All the cafés I used to get these at moved to white cups or cups with red designs on them. The online shops I can find on Google have been out of stock for at least a year. One site says "As of 2/25/05, Chinet is discontinuing manufacture of unbleached paper coffee cups. These cups will be running out, and there is no other maker in the USA." Has anything changed in the meantime?

posted by neustile to shopping (8 comments total)

Eden Alley sells unbleached cups.

As does ecoproducts (although they say they're out of stock - you might call them).

As does Green Home.

The magic google search term was "Unbleached Paper Hot Cups"
posted by plinth at 7:57 AM on November 30, 2006

Green home says they still have stock - so buy them out!
posted by plinth at 7:58 AM on November 30, 2006

(and yes, I'm dense for not reading your addendum)
posted by plinth at 7:58 AM on November 30, 2006

The Eden alley link to cups is broken...

Ecoproducts has been out of stock for at least one year (I checked last december)

Where do you see that Green home has stock? That link doesn't have a buy link, and there's no brown cups on their shop page anymore.

See what I'm talking about? :) Any other places?
posted by neustile at 8:31 AM on November 30, 2006

Check Recyclaholics. They may not havepaper, but some other eco-friendly brown material.
posted by look busy at 8:41 AM on November 30, 2006

I just called Green Home (877.282.6400) and they suggested a set of cups called "Bagasse Cups" which are $50 for 500. They are made from sugar cane stalks and Green Home told me that they were totally willing to research whether or not they were bleached (he suspected that they were not, but couldn't give me a definitive answer on the spot). Sounded like nice folks.
posted by plinth at 12:32 PM on November 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

wow, thanks plinth!!! That is a level of service I just can't get anywhere else :)

Bagasse is also what look busy's link had. I will try to get a sample to see if it fits my (narrow!) needs.

Thanks all, esp. plinth for the footwork.
posted by neustile at 7:23 PM on November 30, 2006

On a side note, Many military bases have plain brown cups like the ones your seeking... Not sure where they get them though.
posted by crewshell at 11:01 PM on November 30, 2006