Bermudian Daren Bascome has helped design an environmentally friendly disposable coffee cup that’s getting a lot of buzz in the US media.He and his partners have invested more than $100,000 of their own money in the invention so far.A patent for the Compleat cup is pending and they are seeking a manufacturer and corporate partners.“We have received considerable interest over the past two days and we are currently exploring some of them and their potential for a fit,” Mr Bascome said.“The Compleat’s unique single-piece design, which eliminates the plastic lid, can bring tremendous benefit to manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers alike.“If you make a cup that costs less and also helps the environment … well, that’s a powerful synergy.”Mr Bascome, a graphic designer, owns Boston-based brand-building agency Proverb, whose clients include the Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and UN Aids.A quest to rid the environment of polluting plastic lids drove the design.Mr Bascome was interviewed and photographed for an article on the cup in The Boston Globe last week together with Compleat co-founder Peter Herman, an architect.“One day, Herman, 49, a dedicated coffee drinker, crumpled an empty paper cup in his hand and saw that by folding the top into an arc, and losing the lid entirely, he had a simple, enclosed cup with a drinking spout,” The Globe article said. “Now, his invention folds like origami to form a spout from which to drink.“A dedicated coffee drinker, Herman, was disturbed by the ‘environmental insult’ of disposable cups, and by their design - especially the placement of a plastic lid on a paper product.”Mr Bascome and his firm helped refine the design to create three panels including one that becomes a messaging surface, where companies can place their brand or message.The Globe quoted Mr Bascome as saying: “The average consumer has a paper cup for 16 minutes. That’s 16 minutes that the company has to build a relationship with consumers.’’The cup does not have a lid and is made of polythene-coated paper.“Like anything new and radical, there is always the inertia of what’s come before you, what people have grown accustomed to,’’ The Globe quoted co-founder Jeff Wager as saying. “It takes product branding and positioning and marketing thrust to start people thinking in a different direction.’’Website: http://thecompleat.comArticle Link: http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2011/11/07/coffee-cup-you-fill-fold-sip-from/z7KF3TrFtannqy9qhJbBNN/story.html