This disposable cup looks like a champagne flute - and then ends up in the compost
Disposable plastic cups are practical, but ugly and a sin against the environment. Swiss designer Silvio Rebholz has developed an elegant alternative - and showcased it at Milan Design Week 2026 in April.
If you've ever drunk from a plastic cup at a party, you know the feeling: somehow cheap, somehow wrong. Lausanne-based designer Silvio Rebholz has done just that - and developed the «Paper Glasses»: Glasses made of paper, coated with beeswax, that feel like real glass and then compost. He showed them at Milan Design Week as part of «Shared Matter» - an exhibition organised by Pro Helvetia that shows what happens when Swiss designers use the world as a workshop.
From the Yunnan studio to the champagne bowl
The «Paper Glasses» look like cocktail glasses, but are made of paper that is then coated with beeswax. The wax binds the material, making it waterproof, food-safe and giving it this unexpected translucency.
How Rebholz came up with the combination of materials was less a flash of inspiration than a process. He began his Pro Helvetia residency in Yunnan, China, with the aim of understanding artisanal paper production. What was possible on site surprised him. «When I understood after the first tests with the craftsmen and women that the local paper fibres could be used to produce very thin yet stable paper structures with a beautiful translucency, I had the idea of making disposable glasses from them», he says. He found the beeswax after parallel tests with soya wax, tung oil and varnish made from persimmon juice. It was simply the best: waterproof, stabilising, food-safe.
Fragile as glass
Why couldn't he have simply developed the project in Switzerland? Because the fibres are crucial: «Traditional paper production in Europe and Asia are fundamentally different. In Europe, mainly cotton or linen fibres are used, in China rice and bamboo fibres. The big difference lies in the length of the fibres, which makes thin but stable paper possible.»
The paper glasses not only look like glass, they also require the same care. When you hold a fragile object in your hand, you drink differently - more slowly, more consciously. They are designed for moments when there is something to celebrate but you can't use real crockery. «Events, trade fairs, vernissages and even birthday or garden parties», says Rebholz. But you shouldn't pour hot coffee into them: The glasses are only designed for cold drinks.
Each glass is still handmade and therefore too expensive for the market. Rebholz is currently working with paper manufacturers on a technology that is ready for series production. So it could be that these glasses really will soon be at your party.
What nature provides
Rebholz was one of seven designers selected by Pro Helvetia for «Shared Matter» - through an open call for entries, evaluated by an international jury. All of the projects were created in collaboration with international partners, as part of residencies or self-initiated practice. What they have in common: They work with what a place, a culture or a material brings to the table and listen to its conditions. Two other projects are particularly memorable.
The designer Noelani Rutz was inspired by snow or, more precisely, by its transience. Her «Fleeting Landscapes» are ceramic tiles moulded directly from snow surfaces, created in collaboration with the Japanese manufacturer Tajimi Custom Tiles.
Vera Roggli and the Filipino designer Julia Villamonte have jointly developed the «Sapin-Sapin» mat. Exterior: Karagumoy sheets, handwoven with communities in Labo, Camarines Norte province. Inside: Swiss wool, inspired by traditional straw mattresses.
The name says it all: «Sapin-Sapin» is a Filipino layer cake, «sapin» simply means «layer» in Tagalog. The mat can be used as a floor mat, room divider or seating element. Anyone who touches the surface expects leather and instead feels something drier, stiffer and more unique.
What all three projects have in common: They work with materials that bring conditions with them - seasonality, origin, craftsmanship. Rebholz adds another question that goes beyond the material: Why shouldn't a disposable cup be beautiful?
Like a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.
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