While most cups designed for hot drinks have a petroleum-based coating, the Tully's ecotainer ™ cups use a bioplastic coating made from corn that comes from International Paper Co.

After a transition of up to six months, the cups that are disposed in any of the 92 company-owned stores will be sent to Cedar Grove Organics composting facilities. This move may bring the amount of company waste being recycled to 72 percent. Although most people on the run probably will have no way to compost the cups because many bioplastics require a bit more than burying the cup in the backyard compost pile.

According to International Paper, Americans use more than 15 billion paper hot cups, but the company expects that number to grow to 23 billion by 2010.

This new technology is a great start to reducing waste, but why don't more people just use their own coffee mugs?