Disposable plastic and paper cups are a environmental disorder. GaeaStara startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, believes it can do better with just clay, water, salt, and sand.
After testing disposable clay cups and bowls in Germany, GaeaStar says it is preparing to introduce its products to the US through a trial with Verve (California coffee chain, No he band).
To make the disposable containers, the startup says it developed a special 3D printer that produces them in “30 seconds or less.” The company declined to share photos of the printer, which it described as patent pending. There’s nothing new about the clay, and in a statement, GaeaStar acknowledged this, saying it was “inspired by ancient Indian culture.”
To fund their Verve pilot and future US collaborations, GaeaStar put together a seed round of $6.5 million from investors including Morningside and Dart Labs.
Through an environmental lens, the single-use cup problem in the US shares some commonalities with the single-occupancy vehicle problem. In each case, a relatively new and inefficient behavior now seems fully entrenched in society. Whether you’re talking about transporting iced lattes in plastic cups or people in metal eggs, there are better ways to move those things, if only people would behave differently. But will the people change? Do you want to do it?
This is a silly thought experiment, but there’s something interesting about where it falls apart: Replacing a ton of cars with public transportation requires, like, real work, including developing great infrastructure and rethinking where and how many of us live. On the other hand, ending disposable cups requires people to carry reusable water bottles. this sounds . . comparatively easy enough.
However, change is difficult at any scale, so we look for alternatives. We electrify single-occupancy vehicles and build seemingly better disposable cups, striving to mitigate the damage we cause without changing our way of life much. Some people consider such commitments to distractionbut in the case of disposable cups, GaeaStar founder Sanjeev Mankotia calls this gathering people “where they are.”
“It’s the reality of Western culture that people are constantly on the go and are now used to being disposable instead of carrying a reusable cup,” Mankotia told TechCrunch via email. “We know recycling doesn’t work and our boats can go straight to the trash without guilt.” When Mankotia says “recycling doesn’t work”, the CEO is referring to how most plastic is never recycled.
GaeaStar hasn’t paid for a full life-cycle environmental cost analysis of its clay cups, but the company says it plans to use its new funding to do so in 2023. Mankotia went on to tell TechCrunch that its internal analysis and estimates “show us that we are using significantly less water and energy compared to paper or plastic holders.”
GaeaStar founder Sanjeev Mankotia. Image Credits: Gaastar
GaeaStar also aims to set up mug printing centers close to its customers and source clay locally. Calling this a micro-factory model, GaeaStar said that in Germany it even delivers boats that use electric bikes. One day, the startup aims to offer a tabletop printer to restaurants so they can “print the cups on demand at the point of sale.”
The startup sent TechCrunch a sample glass etched with a Verve logo and invited me to reuse it as many times as I wanted and then break it up or even use it as a pot for a plant. GaeaStar’s cup is thin and not as strong as plastic, but I found it to be more than capable of holding multiple coffees. Also, the novelty of a clay disposable in the US makes it fun to use.
GaeaStar’s latest fundraiser follows an earlier pre-seed round of $1.7 million, the company said. Its other investors in the new round include At Inc., Sand Hill Angels, VSC and Climate Capital.
