Disposable plastic and paper cups are an environmental mess. GaeaStar, a startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, thinks it can do better with just clay, water, salt, and sand.
After experimenting with disposable cups and crockery in Germany, GaeaStar says it is preparing to bring its products to the US via a trial with Verve (California coffee chain, no the band).
To make the disposable containers, the startup says it has developed a proprietary 3D printer that pops them out in “30 seconds or less.” The company declined to share images 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 the Verve pilot project and future collaborations in the US, GaeaStar has raised a $6.5 million seed round from investors such as Morningside and Dart Labs.
Through an environmental lens, the single-use cup problem in the United States shares some commonalities with the single-occupancy car problem. In each case, the relatively new and ineffective behavior now appears to be fully ingrained in society. Whether you’re talking about moving iced lattes in plastic cups or people in metal eggs, there are better ways to move such things, if only people would act differently. But will people change, and will they want to?
This is a silly thought experiment, but there’s something interesting about where it breaks down: Replacing a ton of cars with public transportation requires, like, real work—including massive infrastructure development and a rethinking of where and how much of us live. On the other hand, killing disposable cups requires people to move around reusable canteens. This seems. . . Relatively easy.
However, change is difficult on any scale, and so we look for alternatives. We electrify single-run vehicles, make ostensibly better disposable cups, and strive to mitigate the damage we do without changing too much in the way we live. Some people consider such compromises a distraction, but in the case of disposable cups, GaeaStar founder Sanjeev Mankotia calls this meeting people “wherever they are.”
“The reality of Western culture is that people are constantly on the move and are now used to discarding a cup in exchange for carrying a reusable cup,” Mancutia told TechCrunch via email. “We know recycling doesn’t work and our ships can go in the trash without feeling guilty.” When Mancutia says “recycling doesn’t work,” the CEO is referring to how most plastics are never recycled.
GaeaStar has not paid for a full life-cycle environmental cost analysis of its earthenware mugs, but the company says it plans to use its new funds to do so in 2023. Mancutia went on to tell TechCrunch that its internal analysis and estimates “show us that we use significantly less water and energy than companies paper or plastic.”
GaeaStar founder Sanjeev Mankotia. Image credits: Jaystar
GaeaStar also aims to set up mug printing centers close to its customers and source clay locally. GaeaStar, which calls this the mini-factory model, said it ships with e-bikes. One day, the startup aims to offer restaurants a tabletop printer so they can “print mugs on demand at the point of sale.”
The startup sent TechCrunch a sample cup engraved with the Verve logo and invited me to reuse it as many times as I wanted, smash it later, or even use it as a plant pot. The GaeaStar cup is thin, not as durable as plastic, but I’ve found that it can hold many types of coffee. Plus, the novelty of US-made disposable clay makes using it kind of fun.
The company said the latest GaeaStar fundraiser follows a $1.7 million pre-seed round. Other investors in the new round include At Inc. and Sand Hill Angels, VSC, and Climate Capital.