LumiCup offers single-use plastic alternative

When announcing the closing of his company’s seed round of funding, LumiTerra (Lumi) co-founder and CEO Kevin Diamond said the company’s vision was to “challenge the status quo in disposable beverage packaging and offer the world an eco-friendly, high-performance alternative to wasteful plastic cups.”

With that in mind, Lumi, headquartered in Los Angeles, has been developing its single-use plastic packaging alternative since 2021. With the introduction of its LumiCup product in November 2024, it has continued to push for “genuine sustainability” in food and beverage packaging and has made headway in the hospitality and travel sectors with its disposable and recyclable aluminum cup.

Lumi tells Recycling Today the cups are manufactured in-house using proprietary, patent-pending technology at its Los Angeles facility and come in a 16-ounce size. The company notes that each 16-ounce cup contains 13 grams of aluminum and weighs the same as a typical 16-ounce plastic cup. Lumi has relationships with a number of mills that supply it aluminum, but it primarily uses a product comprised of 90 percent postconsumer aluminum emanating from a mill in Shanghai.

Lumi says the cups are designed to integrate seamlessly with standard aluminum recycling systems, “ensuring recyclability wherever aluminum is processed.” For customers that may not have local access to recycling services, Lumi also has a relationship with California-based Replenysh, which has a national footprint for privately collecting and recycling different material streams, including aluminum, from businesses and can facilitate a connection to add that collection capability and ensure all discarded aluminum—including LumiCups—are recycled and documented.

The company says an ideal location for the LumiCup is anywhere people currently are using single-use plastic packaging. It claims the aluminum cup is the lightest on the market and keeps drinks cold 70 percent longer than traditional plastic options.

The cups also are customizable, allowing customers to add five-color logos or designs to create a marketing tool that also aligns with sustainability goals.

“From a market entry perspective, LumiCup is focused on hospitality and travel businesses, festivals, events and eco-conscious venues looking to reduce single-use plastic waste,” the company says. “As the company continues to grow, the goal is to make LumiCups a go-to- solution for any occasion where single-use cups are needed.”

As this year progresses, Lumi plans to roll out new 9-ounce and 12-ounce LumiCup sizes, as well as a 2-ounce LumiKin ramekin. Additionally, the company says it plans to expand its manufacturing capacity and make the cups available direct-to-consumer.