SEATTLE – The NextGen Cup Consortium and Challenge, convened by Closed Loop Partners, announced that McDonald’s and Starbucks are developing a global recyclable and/or compostable cup solution. Fast Company reports that the chains will be working together on developing a compostable, fully recyclable cup that will also have a lid and straw—all by 2021.

The Challenge kicks off in September and invites innovators, entrepreneurs, industry experts, and recyclers to submit their ideas for the next generation of recyclable and/or compostable cups. Awardees will receive acceleration funding up to $1 million based on key milestones. Up to seven of the awardees will enter a six-month accelerator program to help scale their solutions.

While NextGen intends to work on the entire cup system, including cups, lids and straws, its first challenge will focus on the fiber-based hot and cold cup, as this is the most significant challenge faced by the industry. For more details on the consortium or challenge, visit www.nextgencup.com.

Fast Company notes that Starbucks and McDonald’s together sell 4% of the entire world’s 600 billion cups each year. The companies want to use their combined scale to influence the manufacturing of single-use cups and the disposable of those cups.

“We’re looking at this as a pre-competitive opportunity. Before we would even compete in the normal way we traditionally would compete, this is kind of a step further back in the chain, saying, ‘how can we work together to solve a problem that’s an issue for society, for the environment,” said Marion Gross, the U.S. chief supply chain officer for McDonald’s.