South African entrepreneur Luvuyo Ndiki built one of the country’s few biodegradable cup manufacturers after festival-goers kept asking him how to recycle the red plastic cups his events agency, Red Cup Village, had introduced to the local festival market.
From events agency to manufacturer
Ndiki founded Red Cup Village in Cape Town in 2014 as a youth-focused creative events agency, working festivals including the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and AfricaCom. The company was also the first to bring the now-familiar red plastic cup to South African festivals, which ultimately created the very recycling question that led to its biodegradable product line.
Built from what was on hand
Ndiki grew up in Nqamakwe in the Eastern Cape, where family members worked in the corn fields, making corn starch a natural material to build a biodegradable product around. Red Cup Village’s bioplastic cups are made from PLA, polylactic acid derived from corn starch and sugar cane sourced from local farmers.
Manufacturing at scale, with 3D printing
Red Cup Village has since built a 3D printing operation running well over a hundred industrial and commercial printers, giving it the capacity for mass customisation and personalisation that a single-mould manufacturing line could not offer. Its cup range has been stocked across thousands of retail outlets and used at hundreds of venues nationwide.
Protecting the innovation
Red Cup Village holds registered design patents on its cup range, with international trademarks pursued alongside them, giving the company real legal standing to act against anyone copying its patented shape.
Frequently asked questions
What is Red Cup Village’s biodegradable cup actually made from?
PLA, a bioplastic derived from corn starch and sugar cane sourced from local South African farms, rather than conventional petroleum-based plastic.
How did an events agency end up manufacturing biodegradable products?
Festival-goers who used the company’s original red plastic cups kept asking how to recycle them, prompting founder Luvuyo Ndiki to develop a genuinely biodegradable alternative instead.
Does Red Cup Village only sell to the events industry?
No. Its biodegradable cup range is stocked across thousands of retail outlets and used well beyond the festival and events circuit that originally inspired the product.
A local problem led to a genuinely scalable solution
Red Cup Village’s growth from a small events agency into a large-scale biodegradable manufacturer shows how a specific, local sustainability problem can become the foundation for a much bigger business.
Further reading: Business Opportunities in the Green Industry | Department of Trade, Industry and Competition for official small business support information
Originally published in March 2019. Updated September 2026 to confirm Red Cup Village’s growth into large-scale 3D-printed manufacturing since this article was first written. The founding story remains the same.
