Making Events Better for All: The Journey to Compostable Cups

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How many times have you thought about being at a party, drinking,

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you know, having a good time, drinking whatever you want to drink, whether it's alcoholic or non-alcoholic, it

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doesn't really matter. But you're drinking out of a cup and you look down at that cup and

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it's a plastic cup. It could be like a red cup, could be a blue cup, could be a yellow cup.

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Sometimes you're playing beer pong or some sort of beer pong, whether it's alcoholic or

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non-alcoholic, it doesn't matter. Or you're playing all these games with it, but you realize

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that those cups are not really good for the environment. They're plastic, they're single use,

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and they'll probably get thrown out and you'll never see

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it again. and it probably not getting, it's probably not getting

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recycled like you would normally think it would get recycled. It's

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probably just getting thrown out and going into a landfill. Not good for

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the environment, not good in the production process as it's oil-based and

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petroleum-based, and so you just think about that. But all you're doing is

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really you're at a party, so why do you have to be depressed and think about this? Wouldn't

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it be better if you had a cup that actually was compostable, like fully compostable, and

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you don't have to worry about that? Well, I'm telling you right now that there's a

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cup available, and it's not only better for you, but

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it's better for all. And we are here to talk to Regan Kelly,

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who works for Better for All, and she's here to talk about the cups, that

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journey to making this cup that's fully compostable, and what

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it means for the environment, and what it means for business in the future. We're going

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to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's

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start the show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Loon, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how

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you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by

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taking action. And on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about taking action,

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and that is how someone can create a business. that is

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Better For All. That's right, it's called Better For All. You can go to betterforall.co, C-O,

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or you can go to betterforall.shop to be able to take a look and buy

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these cups that are fully compostable. That's it, they are very good

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for the environment. You can drink at them, you can play beer

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pong with them, or some kind of beer pong with them, and you

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can just have them. You can see them at festivals,

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you can see them maybe in the future at concert venues or sporting events.

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they could be everywhere, and Regan Kelly is here to

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talk about the journey to create this cup, and why it's

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so important that we have them in our, in existence, and

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sort of in our supply chain, and how hard it was to create

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it, and, and the challenges that she had to face, and the challenges she overcame to

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be able to get this in production. And she talks about

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how it was in production of a recent music festival called

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the Tortuga Festival down in Florida, and how that went

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and what people were looking for and who they partnered with and everything. It's

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a great interview. I can't wait for you to be

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able to hear this interview because I think we need to see more businesses that

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are out there promoting more sustainable products. And

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it's just a great way of finding out how people are marketing these

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types of products. So here's the interview with Reg and Kelly from Better For All.

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Enjoy and I will talk to you after. Hey Reagan, welcome

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to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready to talk about compostable

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That is awesome. I have to admit, I never thought I would

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be so excited to talk about compostable cups. It's not something

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that comes on the top of your mind, but I'll have to tell

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you, seeing so many plastic cups that

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are just being thrown out after use, after a one-time use,

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or they're being cracked or things like that drives me insane.

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So when I came across you and I came across your

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site, I was like, We have to talk about this. This is

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important. You know, someone said, Hey, I'm going to

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stand up to the red K cups and I'm going to say, you

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know what? Enough is enough. We're going to go and we're going to, we're

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going to battle this and we're going to provide a better solution, which I love. And

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I'm sure a lot of the audience members here are going to love it as well. So we're going to get into

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all that. But first I want to get to know you a little bit, Reagan, and what led you

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into this journey of entrepreneurism. Can you just let us know who

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Yes. My name is Regan Kelly. I am a product

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lead and messaging, I guess,

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in charge of messaging at Better For All, which is

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a California company. We're family owned

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and founded, run out of Pasadena, California. And

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all you With

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the battle with cups these days and seeing how many people use cups, it

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seems like a pretty viable business to just have, look, we

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supply cups. That's what if you want cups, you come to us. That's

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what we do. How did it all start? How did this

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Yeah. So, um, in 2018, um,

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I think, uh, all us,

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our family, along with pretty much everyone else in the United States started

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to become keenly aware of how much plastic pollution we

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were dumping, um, in particular into the ocean. But

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I think for some reason, um, you know, part

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of it was that China stopped, you know, accepting our plastic, uh,

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recyclables, right. And we were suddenly facing these

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mountains of trash we were creating. Um, I

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had always been really obsessed with the environment and

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recycling and, you know, I was just really known

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for nerding out on that stuff. Um, uh, so I

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was kind of, that was my torch, if

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you like. And, um, as a family, we were living all

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in the same city for the first time in decades. And we were looking

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for something to do together. We have young kids and,

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uh, we were thinking about a restaurant play, went to a

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restaurant show and saw our first. plant-based

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compostable forks, actually. Yeah.

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And I was like, Oh, we should definitely incorporate these. Cause I

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was really like, I kept thinking with restaurants, you're going

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to get takeaway with takeaway, you're going to get trash. And it was

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giving me a headache. Um, and my

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stepfather was like, what if we made this the business? And

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so we just set off to learn everything we could

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about the world of compostable materials and plant-based

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materials. I learned that plastics were

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made out of oil. Um, and that kind

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You know, this whole problem we're looking at is one industry. So,

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um, you know, first we started with the familiar products

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and materials, PLA and, uh, bags.

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We were, we took on apparel bags and all kinds of sort of things

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that normally get characterized as trash and packaging pretty

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quickly. And we were having a really hard time finding a foothold and

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really finding a way for people to sink

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their teeth into the concept and decided in

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2020 to zero in on a product that people

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already felt a connection to. And

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the cup really just jumped out at us as one,

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something that hadn't really been taken on in terms of sustainability, right?

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Yes, people were starting to use reusable bottles. Definitely. There

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were some really interesting cup options out there. Most

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of them unfortunately made from petroleum plastic, but they were reusable. I

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was loving that. Um, but none of the big, like sort

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of takeout companies, et cetera, you know who you are or,

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uh, to really like address the problem.

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Um, and so, um, I had been working with PLA.

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I had thought to myself. At the time

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I thought to myself, if we go with PLA one, um,

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we're facing an uphill battle because PLA is commercially compostable

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and that's kind of the only way you can safely break it down. Um,

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and you know, in the U S there's just not a lot of infrastructure in

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place yet. So I had been doing a lot of research into

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different materials and I had discovered this material called PHA.

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At the time, the only story anecdote I could hear, find about

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it was about, you know, this test where people had made

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beach choice at a PHA, and they had fully

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biodegraded in the sand. And I thought, Oh,

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my God, that's so amazing, right? Because, of course, I was

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also doing a ton of reading about the five gyres and

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the ocean waste and the

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ocean cleanup was just getting underway. This was just

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like this kind of collision of

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things happening. And so I started calling all the PHA producers

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in the world, and having conversations with them, there were only about

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five. And we found one. It's

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a Japanese company called Monica, but it's headquartered, it's

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biopolymers division is headquartered in Houston. So that

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seemed great. It was also to 22 2020. And we all

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know what happened in 2020. So I had been flying back

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and forth to China, and I couldn't anymore. So decided

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to pivot development to the United States. And, um, and

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so Kanika was really interested. They were, they were very cool.

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They they're huge, like a $5 billion Japanese company,

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but they were interested in partnering with a small family

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startup and like promoting our sort

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of like technical struggle with figuring out how to make a cup

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So this was like starting from scratch. Like you didn't look

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like another formula. It's like, help me make this formula so that when

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That's well, so they did have, they had PHA. So

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PHA is a, is a naturally occurring substance. It

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exists in the world around us, right? It's when it was first discovered

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in like 1920, it was discovered by a soil scientist. Um,

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it's a, product of cellular metabolism.

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Um, it's almost like body fat, but at a microscopic level. So

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it's nutrients that are sort of packaged for later. And

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you know, these people are way more brilliant than I am, but they saw the

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potential in the chemical structure, the molecular structure of

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PHP, PHA. So it limped

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along, you know, petroleum plastics were gaining a lot of

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traction. They were super easy to work with. Um, And

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it just, it just kind of like languished, I

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think, until the end of the 20th century. And then a

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couple of companies seeing the plastic pollution

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problem growing and the problems with recycling, really

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addressing it. Um, they started to develop PLA

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in the United States and then PHA and a few other locations. Um,

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and so PHA at this point is about 30 years old. Um,

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but it is more expensive to develop than, or

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to make at this point, then, uh, petroleum byproducts. So

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a big part of that is just, you know, market

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adoption. You need to have like enough people buying this stuff

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to reduce prices and create efficiencies. Um,

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but anyway. And then you also just needed like movement

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in the market. Like we have to make a change. Right. And

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you know, that like for the last 20 years, there's been a lot of debate about

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whether climate change is even happening. So we

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So, yeah. So anyway, um, so when,

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when I went to Conaca, they did have a PHA, they call it PHBH. That's

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kind of this particular molecular structure and. It

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was, um, I could make a cup out of it. So

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I did make a cup. I was working with a small factory in Portland and

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managed to make a cup. It was too fragile. And

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so Konica went back to the drawing board and worked on the formula. And

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now we have a cup that is flexible, not

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too fragile, um, and can completely and safely

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compost in your home composter or in commercial composter.

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And so for a commercial composter, would that be something like so he I

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live in Ontario, we put our stuff out for composting, like

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for the garbage, people to pick it up, that they would take

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it to a commercial composter is that what is just a larger size composter

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Yeah, so typically, the difference between commercial composting and home composting

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is the temperature. Right. So when

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you're in a commercial compost setup, you have a very specific. So

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different soil microbes thrive in

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different temperatures and moisture levels. So commercial

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composters know exactly what microbial community they

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want to foster. They're going to eat and break down everything really

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fast. So they Constantly regulate and

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measure the temperature and the moisture level of the of

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the compost pile, right? They turn it a certain rate. They

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also are responsible for Putting it through a process at

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the end that will completely kill any kind of bacteria

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or something that could make the soil Yeah, I guess not

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not great for farming and for gardening at

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home you just you know, I mean I have a

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compass I definitely not measuring and regulating. Right.

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Right. So you kind of put everything in and you turn it

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and you know, but you go away for this, you know, for two weeks, and you come

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back and it's dry and right. So you

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need a product that is delicious

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to a much broader array of microbes that that

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thrive in different temperatures and different types of soil and different

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moisture levels. So that's why PHA is so awesome.

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Because it is very friendly to a

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Right. Okay. So now let's, let's, I like how we're

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looking at sort of the composure and what it consists of,

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what this cup consists of. How long did it take you to develop

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it from, you know, you know, right from the beginning all

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Yeah. So I would say that we really just fully commercialized,

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um, in the last, seven months, eight

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months. So it's taken about almost six years to... It's

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taken really almost four years to get us here. The

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00:14:37,132 --> 00:14:40,293
first two years we're making other things. And the good

231
00:14:40,333 --> 00:14:44,614
news is I know how to make other things. So

232
00:14:44,654 --> 00:14:49,835
the sleeves, the cups come in are also certified home compostable. But

233
00:14:50,015 --> 00:14:54,556
the cups themselves, because you need them to be able to withstand

234
00:14:54,636 --> 00:14:57,945
all kinds of wear and tear, travel. you know,

235
00:14:58,025 --> 00:15:01,188
sitting at a bar, getting thrown around, you know, so we

236
00:15:01,208 --> 00:15:04,670
just had our first kind of sizable use case,

237
00:15:05,571 --> 00:15:08,973
um, at the Tortuga festival in Florida in

238
00:15:09,013 --> 00:15:12,256
April. Um, so, you know, we had about

239
00:15:12,296 --> 00:15:15,558
104, we delivered 170,000 cups.

240
00:15:15,618 --> 00:15:19,681
I think about 140,000 cups just were used on the beach for

241
00:15:19,721 --> 00:15:23,124
three days in the sun and wow. Carried up

242
00:15:23,224 --> 00:15:26,574
on stage and, you know, people had really cool little

243
00:15:26,594 --> 00:15:29,975
like, I mean, festival goers are very clever, right? Yeah.

244
00:15:30,615 --> 00:15:33,797
So I saw all kinds of interesting like belts devices where

245
00:15:33,837 --> 00:15:37,078
they almost like a tool belt where they have the cup slotted in

246
00:15:37,198 --> 00:15:40,560
and okay, and they did well, you know, and then yeah, they're

247
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,162
so different looking. They're the natural

248
00:15:44,222 --> 00:15:47,643
PHA color. They were easy for

249
00:15:47,743 --> 00:15:50,985
festival goers to know where to put them. So they put them in the compost bin,

250
00:15:51,025 --> 00:15:54,927
they have really high diversion rates. And then they were

251
00:15:57,808 --> 00:16:01,049
That's amazing. Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this

252
00:16:01,109 --> 00:16:04,951
episode, we mentioned it right before recording, where you're

253
00:16:04,971 --> 00:16:08,132
going up battling against the single-use red

254
00:16:08,192 --> 00:16:11,473
cups that people have or blue cups, the ones that people drink

255
00:16:11,993 --> 00:16:15,214
at a keg or maybe even at a festival probably in the

256
00:16:15,254 --> 00:16:18,495
past or even continues at different festivals. That's

257
00:16:18,555 --> 00:16:22,237
a challenge to get over because they almost have their own brand in themselves. Everybody

258
00:16:22,297 --> 00:16:25,578
knows that they're wasteful. Everybody knows that they're going to use

259
00:16:25,638 --> 00:16:29,179
them. They'll crack at some point. They'll throw them out in the garbage.

260
00:16:29,499 --> 00:16:33,000
Maybe they'll put them in the recycling. I don't even know if they're fully recyclable at

261
00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:36,901
this point. Probably not as you shake your head. But

262
00:16:36,941 --> 00:16:40,322
they have their own brand. People look for the red cups or the blue cups

263
00:16:40,363 --> 00:16:43,584
or whatever cups they come in. You've got the beer pong game where it's like a

264
00:16:43,664 --> 00:16:48,166
big thing. And people look for that. How do

265
00:16:48,266 --> 00:16:51,448
you carve out a space in

266
00:16:51,488 --> 00:16:54,669
the market? Are you promoting that this is

267
00:16:54,970 --> 00:16:58,311
good for the environment? Is that the messaging around it?

268
00:16:58,452 --> 00:17:01,833
Or is it just, do you want a cup that's going to last? Is it just based

269
00:17:01,913 --> 00:17:05,455
on what it is? Because I know different companies who

270
00:17:05,495 --> 00:17:08,957
have built a sustainable product have gone different paths.

271
00:17:10,238 --> 00:17:13,801
And it changes each for each company is

272
00:17:13,881 --> 00:17:17,505
unique to each company. So just curious, what was your messaging

273
00:17:19,606 --> 00:17:22,769
Yeah, so I think, you know, we

274
00:17:22,809 --> 00:17:26,052
have to we have a number of different markets that we're

275
00:17:26,312 --> 00:17:30,196
kind of reaching out to, I would say, on the business

276
00:17:30,216 --> 00:17:33,778
to business side. You know, you have businesses

277
00:17:33,818 --> 00:17:37,020
that are either being regulated, you

278
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:41,183
know, policies are requiring them to move away from single use plastic. They

279
00:17:41,203 --> 00:17:45,367
just care and they want to do something different. Or

280
00:17:45,787 --> 00:17:48,909
you have festivals that are really like connected to the

281
00:17:48,989 --> 00:17:52,492
environments that the festivals are held in and they know what

282
00:17:52,532 --> 00:17:56,075
the impact is, how much trash is generated in three short

283
00:17:56,115 --> 00:17:59,480
days. So they're looking, you know, they're really looking for

284
00:17:59,540 --> 00:18:03,021
something better. Um, so with them, it's a different conversation. It's

285
00:18:03,081 --> 00:18:06,662
really like why our cup versus something

286
00:18:06,762 --> 00:18:10,623
else. I would say that, you know, I have this dream of having

287
00:18:10,743 --> 00:18:14,665
a conversion of our cup. That's a bit more substantial

288
00:18:15,245 --> 00:18:18,666
for reusable systems. I mean, reuse systems haven't quite

289
00:18:18,726 --> 00:18:21,827
really caught up yet. Um, I

290
00:18:21,867 --> 00:18:25,108
don't, you know, I think we're going to figure it out eventually, but right now you

291
00:18:25,128 --> 00:18:29,131
have, reuse systems, but they're implementing like

292
00:18:29,431 --> 00:18:32,993
pretty toxic petroleum plastic cups. So

293
00:18:33,473 --> 00:18:36,774
for me, you know, and I really passionately believe

294
00:18:36,814 --> 00:18:41,696
this, like we need to move away from petroleum plastic everywhere

295
00:18:42,316 --> 00:18:46,478
that has a single use or limited use application. Obviously

296
00:18:46,518 --> 00:18:50,219
like, you know, there's a lot of places where we have plastics that

297
00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:53,675
last for decades, the way they're supposed to. That's

298
00:18:53,695 --> 00:18:56,996
not what I'm talking about. When you have something that's potentially going to have a use

299
00:18:57,056 --> 00:19:00,437
life of 10 minutes or even months, like

300
00:19:00,477 --> 00:19:03,918
you don't want to use something that's got such a negative impact on the environment.

301
00:19:04,358 --> 00:19:08,439
It's also, you know, a lot of these plastics have really pretty,

302
00:19:08,759 --> 00:19:12,120
pretty harmful chemicals that leach out

303
00:19:12,140 --> 00:19:16,101
of them. And then also when they break down, they can create microplastics. And

304
00:19:16,201 --> 00:19:19,803
I know because you're so knowledgeable about

305
00:19:19,823 --> 00:19:23,264
the ocean, you know exactly what that's doing to our, to

306
00:19:26,185 --> 00:19:29,326
Even our health too, right? Like, we're seeing it now it's

307
00:19:29,366 --> 00:19:32,907
in the air and it's in our lungs and it's in our blood. And we're seeing the

308
00:19:32,947 --> 00:19:36,088
effects of that over long terms. Yeah. I think we're just starting to scratch the

309
00:19:40,550 --> 00:19:44,231
I a million percent agree with you. So, um, so anyway,

310
00:19:44,251 --> 00:19:47,584
so I could see our material, Our cup being

311
00:19:47,624 --> 00:19:50,987
a really beautiful like component of a reuse

312
00:19:51,047 --> 00:19:55,010
system. Now you have the cups being reused and recirculated in

313
00:19:55,051 --> 00:19:58,494
a closed loop environment like a festival. On the direct to

314
00:19:58,534 --> 00:20:02,077
consumer side, we just launched a better for all shop,

315
00:20:02,317 --> 00:20:05,500
dot shop, which is, you know, send, you know, we

316
00:20:05,540 --> 00:20:08,723
ship sleeves directly to consumers. And what I see there is,

317
00:20:10,525 --> 00:20:14,034
you know, early adopter sort of smart

318
00:20:14,074 --> 00:20:18,596
shoppers going out and looking for new materials. And

319
00:20:19,076 --> 00:20:22,358
in those cases, typically, like if they're ordering, they're ordering for

320
00:20:22,398 --> 00:20:26,020
a party, it looks like. Yeah, there's some small businesses, I

321
00:20:26,060 --> 00:20:29,261
can see that are ordering for say, if they have, you

322
00:20:33,985 --> 00:20:37,587
You can wash and reuse our cups. They are, this

323
00:20:37,667 --> 00:20:41,148
material is high heat tolerant to the boiling

324
00:20:41,188 --> 00:20:44,950
point of water, which is a unique, you know, so like PLA

325
00:20:45,130 --> 00:20:48,632
and a number of plastics would melt in the same temperature. So

326
00:20:49,472 --> 00:20:53,154
it's an interesting material. Um, but the cup is relatively

327
00:20:53,254 --> 00:20:56,555
thin walls because we needed it to be as home

328
00:20:56,615 --> 00:20:59,757
compostable spot. Like I wanted it to biodegrade in a

329
00:20:59,877 --> 00:21:03,564
short period as possible. Yeah, that's true. It

330
00:21:03,584 --> 00:21:06,786
also keeps the price point down. I mean, if you have tons of

331
00:21:10,108 --> 00:21:13,289
Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, that's true, too. So it's really so

332
00:21:13,329 --> 00:21:17,071
you have the sort of the business to business where you can do festivals, you

333
00:21:17,111 --> 00:21:21,561
can do conference centers, maybe you can do universities and

334
00:21:21,601 --> 00:21:24,903
things like that where you can have those cups for anywhere that they would

335
00:21:26,304 --> 00:21:29,746
use that. And that would be like you said, we're

336
00:21:29,766 --> 00:21:33,268
looking at hundreds of thousands of cups being used at a festival. Obviously

337
00:21:33,308 --> 00:21:36,349
that makes it good for revenue but also for usage and I

338
00:21:36,389 --> 00:21:39,610
can just imagine how much less plastic they have to deal with

339
00:21:39,831 --> 00:21:43,952
instead of using just a plastic cup. Obviously, better messaging for

340
00:21:44,352 --> 00:21:47,453
the festival. They can say, hey, isn't it great that we have these cups? We don't have

341
00:21:47,493 --> 00:21:51,914
to worry about it. What was their reaction that there's a Tortuga Festival?

342
00:21:51,934 --> 00:21:55,135
What was their reaction afterwards? Or did they kind of promote the

343
00:21:55,195 --> 00:21:58,696
cups in any kind of way to just be like, hey, we're doing something different.

344
00:21:58,716 --> 00:22:02,176
We're trying our best to not put out pollution. Because I

345
00:22:02,216 --> 00:22:05,719
have to admit, I'm thinking of, There was a documentary a

346
00:22:05,779 --> 00:22:09,383
while ago about, oh, what's the, oh,

347
00:22:09,564 --> 00:22:13,208
it was a festival. Oh God, I can't remember, I can't remember. Glastonbury.

348
00:22:13,248 --> 00:22:16,632
No, no, Woodstock too. The second Woodstock in the 90s

349
00:22:17,013 --> 00:22:20,297
and how much plastic and garbage was left. Like, I mean, you

350
00:22:20,337 --> 00:22:24,081
know that one, Regan, like that was disgusting. And

351
00:22:24,101 --> 00:22:27,263
it even got to the point where it was unsanitary how much stuff was

352
00:22:27,283 --> 00:22:30,965
around. But festivals

353
00:22:31,045 --> 00:22:34,327
must love this, because a lot of the people who go to festivals are

354
00:22:34,347 --> 00:22:37,718
a little bit more earthy. you know, like the,

355
00:22:37,778 --> 00:22:41,100
the, the, the, you get the quote unquote hippies of the world who go

356
00:22:41,201 --> 00:22:44,563
there, they want to be good for the environment. They're kind of camping out anyway at

357
00:22:44,583 --> 00:22:47,946
a lot of the places. And so you want to kind

358
00:22:47,986 --> 00:22:51,149
of say, Hey, this is good. You're not going to be impacting the environment with that. What

359
00:22:51,169 --> 00:22:54,231
was the festivals reaction like throughout the festival about the

360
00:22:55,572 --> 00:22:58,895
So, yeah, so, um, I would say I'll, I'll answer that

361
00:22:58,955 --> 00:23:02,518
question in three parts. Um, one, it was the festival

362
00:23:02,558 --> 00:23:05,781
producers, which, um, so live nation is the

363
00:23:05,821 --> 00:23:09,090
sort of umbrella producer, but Rock the Ocean

364
00:23:09,150 --> 00:23:12,892
is the non-profit producer of Tortuga,

365
00:23:13,552 --> 00:23:17,495
and all of the funds that they raise go to ocean conservation issues.

366
00:23:17,595 --> 00:23:20,716
So they were looking for our cup because of

367
00:23:20,776 --> 00:23:24,118
the marine degradability of PEJs, right? And

368
00:23:24,238 --> 00:23:28,581
so they were searching, they were already using compostables, but

369
00:23:28,681 --> 00:23:31,827
they were really worried about the materials ending up in

370
00:23:31,867 --> 00:23:36,009
the ocean because it's right on the beach, right? So they tracked

371
00:23:36,109 --> 00:23:40,091
us down through my website and then emailed

372
00:23:40,171 --> 00:23:43,652
me, asked me some questions. I sent them some samples

373
00:23:43,832 --> 00:23:47,934
and they took them directly to their composter and said, you

374
00:23:47,954 --> 00:23:52,435
know, yes or no. And the composter renewable

375
00:23:52,755 --> 00:23:56,437
is their name. They're also in Fort Lauderdale. They said, please, please

376
00:23:56,477 --> 00:23:59,822
take these cups. What was interesting is the reason they wanted the cups was

377
00:23:59,842 --> 00:24:02,992
because they were so different looking than PLA

378
00:24:03,012 --> 00:24:06,454
or plastic cups. Part of the issue with PLA is

379
00:24:06,494 --> 00:24:09,995
they look so much like plastic that it's really

380
00:24:10,035 --> 00:24:13,756
hard for composters to sort them out, right? So they don't know, is this contamination?

381
00:24:16,577 --> 00:24:19,898
Sorting is a huge part of waste management. It is. I've learned so

382
00:24:19,938 --> 00:24:24,099
much about waste management. Yeah.

383
00:24:24,159 --> 00:24:27,700
So they said, please take these cups from a sorting perspective, you

384
00:24:27,740 --> 00:24:31,001
know, and they looked at our certifications and were like, okay, these will

385
00:24:31,021 --> 00:24:34,468
be fine. Yeah,

386
00:24:34,528 --> 00:24:37,770
during the festival, they were, they had a, like

387
00:24:37,790 --> 00:24:41,692
a, I guess, a booth on the Conservation Pavilion and

388
00:24:41,852 --> 00:24:44,994
people came, you know, attendees came through and they chatted to them

389
00:24:45,034 --> 00:24:49,276
about the cups and we got some really nice, what

390
00:24:49,336 --> 00:24:52,498
I can see, and I know this would be true for me if I was at

391
00:24:52,538 --> 00:24:55,900
a festival, is, you

392
00:24:55,940 --> 00:24:59,876
know, you come to a festival to enjoy, to just

393
00:24:59,996 --> 00:25:03,523
completely disconnect from your daily life and immerse yourself

394
00:25:03,603 --> 00:25:06,789
in music. You're with other people who love the same thing

395
00:25:06,829 --> 00:25:10,155
you do. And there's so much potential, I

396
00:25:10,195 --> 00:25:14,076
think. for concert promoters to just add

397
00:25:14,136 --> 00:25:17,217
to the joy, right? By helping people. I

398
00:25:17,257 --> 00:25:20,838
mean, I don't think anyone who went to Woodstock wanted to like wade

399
00:25:20,898 --> 00:25:25,300
through piles of their own trash, right? That

400
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:30,381
was not on their freaking bill, right?

401
00:25:30,481 --> 00:25:33,962
So I think, you know, there's a huge, like, right. So just

402
00:25:34,283 --> 00:25:38,084
recently, I think like a week and a half ago, Live Nation, Warner

403
00:25:38,104 --> 00:25:43,045
Brothers Music, And then a whole bunch of different artists with

404
00:25:43,265 --> 00:25:46,805
MIT Environmental Initiative, I think it's called, just

405
00:25:46,925 --> 00:25:50,526
announced that they're bringing together a bunch of people

406
00:25:50,546 --> 00:25:54,387
across all levels of the music industry

407
00:25:54,507 --> 00:25:57,747
and the live event industry to figure out the

408
00:25:57,787 --> 00:26:01,628
best way to lower climate emissions in relation to live

409
00:26:01,688 --> 00:26:04,949
events, but also like, how do we find the best materials? How

410
00:26:04,989 --> 00:26:08,310
do we do better? like preserve the

411
00:26:08,350 --> 00:26:12,152
planet and the people on it. So I

412
00:26:16,132 --> 00:26:19,596
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And especially like getting in with, you

413
00:26:19,616 --> 00:26:23,500
know, companies like, you know, that put on festivals that put on music, you

414
00:26:23,540 --> 00:26:26,643
know, conference centers and stuff like that. You feel like it's a,

415
00:26:26,843 --> 00:26:30,146
it's a, it's a win win situation, right? You just, you know, you just have

416
00:26:30,166 --> 00:26:33,410
to package it properly and make sure that it works. Like the cup works.

417
00:26:33,490 --> 00:26:36,753
It does its function. It has to work. It

418
00:26:36,853 --> 00:26:40,498
has to work. Now here's a question, you know, we're seeing a lot of,

419
00:26:40,578 --> 00:26:44,323
now I'm not sure where the US is on this, I've seen it in certain places, but like

420
00:26:44,343 --> 00:26:47,847
Canada, where I live, you know, the government is trying to crack down on single-use

421
00:26:47,887 --> 00:26:51,172
plastic and there are, like right now, there are six plastics that are

422
00:26:51,772 --> 00:26:54,976
banned from being used and they're slowly phasing those out. It's being

423
00:26:55,016 --> 00:26:59,380
held up in court with a decision right now. That's a different episode to

424
00:26:59,420 --> 00:27:02,723
deal with because all the plastic companies and the fossil fuel companies are

425
00:27:02,743 --> 00:27:06,606
trying to fight it. But there are six single-use plastics that you cannot use.

426
00:27:06,666 --> 00:27:10,589
And a lot of it has to do with plastic cutlery and takeout items

427
00:27:10,829 --> 00:27:15,054
and things like that. With that said, you know, restaurants

428
00:27:15,114 --> 00:27:18,476
are moving towards and, and, you know, like the takeout,

429
00:27:18,496 --> 00:27:21,539
the better takeout contains, you're already starting to see it, you know, you're starting to

430
00:27:21,559 --> 00:27:24,902
see better cut, like the, the single use cutlery is, is becoming

431
00:27:24,942 --> 00:27:28,284
more sustainable. Do you see an option for moving

432
00:27:28,344 --> 00:27:31,827
into our outside of the US where companies are having

433
00:27:31,887 --> 00:27:35,190
that foresight or the governments are trying to kind of not

434
00:27:35,270 --> 00:27:38,693
push, but just, you know, nudge the alternative sources

435
00:27:40,970 --> 00:27:44,431
Yes, for sure. I mean, definitely North America is

436
00:27:44,491 --> 00:27:47,673
not really an issue for us. Um, I would say, you know, we

437
00:27:47,713 --> 00:27:51,394
get a lot of interest from Europe and some

438
00:27:51,414 --> 00:27:54,556
of the island nations and even as far as India. Um,

439
00:27:55,776 --> 00:27:58,957
but you know, not right now. Like that's just, I

440
00:27:58,977 --> 00:28:02,519
don't think it makes any sense. You'd have to be manufacturing close to

441
00:28:02,619 --> 00:28:05,880
the point of consumption just to make sense from an emissions perspective, I

442
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,182
believe. But, um, but yeah, North America for sure. Um,

443
00:28:10,547 --> 00:28:13,909
I'm so curious to see what happens in Canada. I mean, we're so far

444
00:28:14,469 --> 00:28:19,291
from anything like that. I mean, businesses

445
00:28:19,391 --> 00:28:23,193
have to struggle with whatever policies are in place in

446
00:28:23,233 --> 00:28:27,355
their state, in their municipality, right in their city, um,

447
00:28:27,515 --> 00:28:31,117
and just figure it out piecemeal from what I can tell. Um, you

448
00:28:31,137 --> 00:28:36,679
know, we, in California, of course, we have a little bit more progressive

449
00:28:36,719 --> 00:28:39,884
legislation. Some would say. Um, but you know,

450
00:28:39,944 --> 00:28:43,326
it's still all over the place. Like it's whoever, you

451
00:28:43,366 --> 00:28:46,827
know, was active and engaged with the process

452
00:28:46,867 --> 00:28:50,308
of writing the policy at the time and whatever their beliefs were. Um,

453
00:28:51,329 --> 00:28:54,690
you know, I have my, I don't know, there's

454
00:28:54,730 --> 00:28:58,172
probably some really interesting work being done on like, what will the impact,

455
00:28:58,192 --> 00:29:01,533
would the impact be if we took all single use plastics and

456
00:29:01,593 --> 00:29:04,694
turned it into paper? I mean, that's got, that

457
00:29:04,714 --> 00:29:07,958
would, I don't know how many trees that would be. I

458
00:29:07,998 --> 00:29:11,859
mean, just look at the impact of toilet paper on forests,

459
00:29:11,999 --> 00:29:16,420
right? So I don't know. I think there needs to be a centralized

460
00:29:16,460 --> 00:29:20,181
conversation about what the viable alternative materials

461
00:29:20,461 --> 00:29:23,742
are. So for example, there's

462
00:29:23,942 --> 00:29:27,043
a lot of interest in seaweed. Seaweed plastics, I'm sure you've heard.

463
00:29:32,864 --> 00:29:36,566
I know for sure that at least one of the seaweed companies that are making products

464
00:29:36,606 --> 00:29:39,927
right now and at a very small scale, um,

465
00:29:40,487 --> 00:29:43,929
are using PHA as a blend because they, you

466
00:29:43,969 --> 00:29:47,470
know, it's not easy to just take a, take

467
00:29:47,570 --> 00:29:50,691
a, you know, a piece of seaweed and turn it into a

468
00:29:50,831 --> 00:29:54,153
viable and commercial commercial product. So I

469
00:29:54,173 --> 00:29:57,614
think that PHA has a long way to go in terms of promoting itself

470
00:29:57,934 --> 00:30:01,116
as a viable alternative. And yeah, you're absolutely right.

471
00:30:01,156 --> 00:30:04,615
The plastics. Lobbyists are well-funded and

472
00:30:04,635 --> 00:30:08,537
you know, it's just gonna be an ongoing battle But

473
00:30:08,577 --> 00:30:11,860
I just you know, we're I think we're gonna pull it off.

474
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:16,904
Absolutely 100% 100% It's exactly

475
00:30:17,284 --> 00:30:20,607
well and I think a lot of the things to you know one of the messages what's

476
00:30:20,627 --> 00:30:23,809
in the message that could come out of this of using and even for festivals or

477
00:30:23,849 --> 00:30:28,172
businesses is the amount of sort

478
00:30:28,192 --> 00:30:32,215
of their footprint, the reduction of their footprint by using non-plastic

479
00:30:32,315 --> 00:30:35,577
items. I think I saw a stat recently and 20 to

480
00:30:35,997 --> 00:30:39,419
30 percent of fossil fuel like petroleum and

481
00:30:39,599 --> 00:30:42,961
oil goes into creating plastics. So

482
00:30:42,981 --> 00:30:46,704
if we're trying to reduce the dependency on

483
00:30:46,804 --> 00:30:50,646
fossil fuels, we have to reduce our dependency on plastics. Like

484
00:30:50,666 --> 00:30:54,049
you said, we have a long way to go because it seems like every one

485
00:30:54,069 --> 00:30:57,872
of our plastics, bottles, containers, things

486
00:30:57,892 --> 00:31:01,595
like that, if they're single-use, they're pretty much plastic. We've

487
00:31:01,655 --> 00:31:05,078
moved away from glass a long time ago. Now we're into plastics. It's

488
00:31:05,158 --> 00:31:08,601
cheaper to make. It's great for the companies. They don't want to really move

489
00:31:08,641 --> 00:31:12,464
away from it. It's going to need a lot of government regulation,

490
00:31:12,544 --> 00:31:16,207
however. I feel like the companies who are progressive and

491
00:31:16,267 --> 00:31:19,350
who have the same values of, look, if we're going to

492
00:31:19,570 --> 00:31:24,154
use these things and there's an alternative that's affordable, that's

493
00:31:24,234 --> 00:31:27,936
available, that we can use on mass scale if we're conference

494
00:31:27,956 --> 00:31:32,180
centers or music festivals or concert

495
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,282
halls and things like that, we can start to move the

496
00:31:35,342 --> 00:31:38,445
needle and companies can come out and just be like, hey, not only

497
00:31:38,485 --> 00:31:42,088
did we reduce the amount of trash, but we reduced our footprint

498
00:31:42,768 --> 00:31:46,369
by however many tons of carbon

499
00:31:46,389 --> 00:31:50,290
dioxide, greenhouse gas emissions. And I think that is

500
00:31:50,330 --> 00:31:53,610
a huge thing. And to be honest, most

501
00:31:53,710 --> 00:31:57,531
people, when they go to these venues, they may not care. Who

502
00:31:57,571 --> 00:32:00,972
knows? They may not care. But as long as it works, that's fine. And

503
00:32:00,992 --> 00:32:04,392
then the companies can promote their sustainability and just be like, we're

504
00:32:04,412 --> 00:32:07,833
doing our best. We're trying to figure this out. And if we know it works, and

505
00:32:07,853 --> 00:32:11,294
it builds on referrals and things like that, and the messaging that

506
00:32:11,314 --> 00:32:15,336
you guys provide, Then it's then it's perfect. So

507
00:32:15,356 --> 00:32:19,258
I think it's I think it's great now. You've done a lot of work on

508
00:32:19,479 --> 00:32:23,061
Building this these cups right like this product, you know,

509
00:32:23,081 --> 00:32:26,183
I think on the I just like checking on your website I think you have like an 8 ounce and a

510
00:32:26,483 --> 00:32:30,365
6 ounce cup. Is that like for like for? Customer

511
00:32:31,946 --> 00:32:35,869
Yeah, so we have an 8 ounce and we have a 16 ounce Okay, and

512
00:32:35,909 --> 00:32:40,022
we have a 20. Oh, yeah 20 22 ounce pilot So

513
00:32:40,122 --> 00:32:43,144
that one's not on the website yet, but I send it off as a

514
00:32:43,204 --> 00:32:47,687
sample just to gauge interest. It was initially specifically

515
00:32:47,727 --> 00:32:51,449
for stadiums because that's a pretty large for but yeah, right.

516
00:32:52,289 --> 00:32:55,511
But yeah, so the 16 is kind of your 1618 was

517
00:32:55,671 --> 00:32:59,474
brimful. That's your classic red party cup size. Yeah.

518
00:32:59,594 --> 00:33:02,956
And then eight ounce. It's a seven nine ounce. It's like perfect

519
00:33:02,976 --> 00:33:06,117
for wine, water, etc. We

520
00:33:06,157 --> 00:33:09,647
actually have a lot of I would say direct to consumer, there's more interest

521
00:33:09,707 --> 00:33:12,989
in the eight outs than in the 16, which is interesting. It

522
00:33:13,089 --> 00:33:16,211
could just be kind of who's, who's finding out

523
00:33:16,251 --> 00:33:19,454
about it and purchasing at this point. Right. Um,

524
00:33:19,754 --> 00:33:22,936
yeah, I mean, so back to your, I was just

525
00:33:22,956 --> 00:33:26,219
thinking about, you had asked a marketing question earlier and I would say an

526
00:33:26,299 --> 00:33:29,461
interesting thing that's emerging as I feel like, um, and this

527
00:33:29,501 --> 00:33:32,824
may just be, you know, I have, I work with this wonderful group

528
00:33:32,904 --> 00:33:36,780
of content creators in Florida and, um, you

529
00:33:36,820 --> 00:33:40,401
know, one of them's always saying, you know, everything's connected,

530
00:33:40,621 --> 00:33:44,042
right? And it's like, just remember, everything's connected.

531
00:33:44,062 --> 00:33:47,343
And I think that's something that, you know, it might be

532
00:33:47,383 --> 00:33:50,944
just dawning on a lot of people. You know, when you think about,

533
00:33:52,344 --> 00:33:55,625
I think I was thinking about your podcast, and I also follow you

534
00:33:55,685 --> 00:33:59,146
on LinkedIn. And I remember when Google

535
00:33:59,186 --> 00:34:02,867
Earth first came out, and when they, when

536
00:34:02,887 --> 00:34:06,168
you would zoom in on parts of the world that were just ocean,

537
00:34:06,665 --> 00:34:10,746
They were just painted blue pixels. They didn't even bother showing

538
00:34:10,786 --> 00:34:14,407
you the actual ocean in that. And I thought, yeah, I think we didn't

539
00:34:14,988 --> 00:34:18,829
think of the ocean or conceive of it as a habitat, like

540
00:34:18,889 --> 00:34:22,150
a place that all of these things were living, right?

541
00:34:24,389 --> 00:34:27,972
And funny story about that is it didn't happen until

542
00:34:29,193 --> 00:34:32,695
Dr. Sylvia Earle started to work with Google Earth because

543
00:34:32,715 --> 00:34:35,938
they presented in front of her and they said what

544
00:34:35,958 --> 00:34:39,480
do you think you'd like this Google Earth and it you're right it was just Earth

545
00:34:39,660 --> 00:34:43,543
like it was just land on the planet and the rest was blue

546
00:34:43,664 --> 00:34:47,328
like there was no 3d imaging there was no diving

547
00:34:47,368 --> 00:34:50,552
into the ocean like you can do now and she said and they

548
00:34:50,592 --> 00:34:53,856
asked her what do you think and they and she said look this is wonderful like this

549
00:34:53,936 --> 00:34:57,641
is great like the map is going to change mapping it's going to change navigation all

550
00:34:57,661 --> 00:35:00,904
this kind of stuff but she's like But what about why call it

551
00:35:00,924 --> 00:35:04,107
Google Earth? And it's like, what do you mean? It's like, it should be called Google Ocean

552
00:35:04,127 --> 00:35:07,930
because our planet is a planet of oceans, you know, over

553
00:35:08,311 --> 00:35:11,373
70%. And they were like, oh, and she's like, why don't you start putting the

554
00:35:11,433 --> 00:35:14,696
features of the ocean in the ocean? Like where

555
00:35:14,716 --> 00:35:18,299
you have like you have all this. like 70% of that

556
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:23,524
globe is nothing right now. And that's how Google, in

557
00:35:23,544 --> 00:35:26,746
a way, that's how Google Ocean was formed. And

558
00:35:26,806 --> 00:35:30,089
now we start to see, like now, I don't even know what the education around

559
00:35:30,129 --> 00:35:33,532
is and how many people know, but you can dive underneath the surface. You can look

560
00:35:33,572 --> 00:35:37,435
at monuments and things like that and marine protected areas.

561
00:35:37,995 --> 00:35:41,256
all this wonder, canyons and seamounts and things like that. So,

562
00:35:41,876 --> 00:35:45,177
you know, that's how it progresses. It's people letting

563
00:35:45,237 --> 00:35:48,697
people know. So, I can just imagine too, going back to these cups is,

564
00:35:49,498 --> 00:35:53,318
you know, you're at a festival and you're like, wow, this is great. Like, you're probably looking

565
00:35:53,358 --> 00:35:56,659
at it, it's different than your normal cups you get probably at festivals. You're

566
00:35:56,679 --> 00:35:59,980
starting to, I'm sure the conversation happened with, you know, hundreds

567
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,541
of thousands of people that were at this conference or

568
00:36:03,581 --> 00:36:06,881
at this festival. And people are talking about like, I wonder what the

569
00:36:06,941 --> 00:36:10,302
benefit is. And then if they got to know what the benefit is, then they're

570
00:36:10,322 --> 00:36:13,483
like, well, this is great. Like, this is really nice to see this kind of stuff. It makes

571
00:36:13,503 --> 00:36:16,684
you feel better about yourself that, you know, there are companies out there who

572
00:36:16,724 --> 00:36:20,124
are trying to do good. And it doesn't affect whether

573
00:36:20,204 --> 00:36:23,265
you're having a good time or you're not having a good time. You know what I

574
00:36:23,285 --> 00:36:26,606
mean? Like that, you're still getting your water, your juice, whatever

575
00:36:26,686 --> 00:36:32,123
else you decide to consume at a a festival, right?

576
00:36:32,183 --> 00:36:35,245
But it's the awareness of it. And I

577
00:36:35,305 --> 00:36:38,546
think that's the big thing. It's why I started this podcast in

578
00:36:38,566 --> 00:36:41,948
the first place was to make people aware of what's happening in

579
00:36:41,988 --> 00:36:45,189
the ocean. And part of that is to like, how do we, you

580
00:36:45,209 --> 00:36:48,551
know, it's tough to find sustainable items. You know, there

581
00:36:48,591 --> 00:36:52,133
aren't many reasons. We're starting to see more and more resources of people coming out, you

582
00:36:52,153 --> 00:36:55,314
know, with, you know, like just sort of a resource of where you can

583
00:36:55,374 --> 00:36:58,516
find certain things. But this one is

584
00:36:58,576 --> 00:37:02,038
great because it really battles the

585
00:37:02,298 --> 00:37:05,521
plastic alternative of what we're used to. And

586
00:37:05,541 --> 00:37:08,723
I'm looking forward to seeing this grow. Now, I

587
00:37:08,783 --> 00:37:12,145
know this is all about cups, but the company is better for

588
00:37:12,345 --> 00:37:15,608
all. So are there plans in the distant future of

589
00:37:15,728 --> 00:37:18,950
coming out potentially with other types of

590
00:37:22,537 --> 00:37:25,999
Yeah, well, so I would say initially, we're going to focus on cups

591
00:37:26,079 --> 00:37:29,941
because you could go all the way down to, you

592
00:37:29,961 --> 00:37:33,523
know, sample cups for trade shows. Oh, yeah. grocery

593
00:37:33,563 --> 00:37:37,245
stores and dose cups, scoops

594
00:37:37,385 --> 00:37:40,822
for laundry, like there's so many different so cup

595
00:37:40,902 --> 00:37:44,123
applications, right? That could use to be made out of something a little

596
00:37:47,364 --> 00:37:50,684
And then, um, you know, and then we, we also

597
00:37:50,704 --> 00:37:53,925
are looking at different manufacturing methods. So right at the moment we

598
00:37:54,065 --> 00:37:57,866
use a highly efficient manufacturing method, but that can't,

599
00:37:57,966 --> 00:38:01,207
you know, the, the, the wall thickness can't go any

600
00:38:01,287 --> 00:38:04,967
thinner than it currently is. If you wanted to make a super lightweight cup

601
00:38:05,027 --> 00:38:08,475
that could go say on an airplane or something, um, you

602
00:38:08,515 --> 00:38:11,716
would want to use a different manufacturing method that we're

603
00:38:11,776 --> 00:38:15,036
just kind of the, the compound needs to be

604
00:38:15,116 --> 00:38:19,037
modified in certain ways so that it can take that kind of, yeah,

605
00:38:19,817 --> 00:38:22,858
the pressures, right, that are applied to the product so that it

606
00:38:22,898 --> 00:38:27,059
doesn't just start to biodegrade in production. And

607
00:38:27,119 --> 00:38:30,760
then yeah, and then there's, you know, there's a pet project that

608
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,080
I started working on seriously for a while. And then we put

609
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:37,822
it to one side because it's, it's just, a completely different

610
00:38:37,842 --> 00:38:41,246
product. But it's got the same use case

611
00:38:41,526 --> 00:38:44,850
in its water bags. I don't know if you've heard of them. But

612
00:38:45,010 --> 00:38:49,034
actually, like some huge percentage of the world's population consumes

613
00:38:54,199 --> 00:38:57,843
I was actually on an airplane recently, and someone walked up with a Ziploc and

614
00:38:57,883 --> 00:39:01,050
sat next to me. And it had water in it. And I was like,

615
00:39:01,110 --> 00:39:04,633
Oh my God, he's drinking water out of those.

616
00:39:09,096 --> 00:39:12,758
In some cases they stick a straw on the top and in other cases they

617
00:39:12,858 --> 00:39:16,661
bite the bottom of the corner off and drink it. It's considered sustainable

618
00:39:17,221 --> 00:39:21,084
to some degree because it's lighter weight, it's less plastic than

619
00:39:21,884 --> 00:39:25,449
a bottle. There

620
00:39:25,489 --> 00:39:28,931
are these machines, they're called form, fill, and seal machines, and

621
00:39:28,951 --> 00:39:32,314
they take these huge, thick, plastic rolls, and

622
00:39:32,354 --> 00:39:35,616
they roll them down, and they seal them off, and

623
00:39:35,676 --> 00:39:38,859
about 500 milliliters of water is dropped in, and they seal off the

624
00:39:38,899 --> 00:39:42,061
top. Especially in

625
00:39:42,202 --> 00:39:45,764
Africa, they get dropped off on

626
00:39:46,004 --> 00:39:49,107
street corners and in small markets, and people buy maybe 10 at

627
00:39:49,147 --> 00:39:52,449
a time. They bite off the corner, drink the water, and

628
00:39:52,469 --> 00:39:55,988
throw the bag. And the bags are filling the bays.

629
00:39:56,409 --> 00:39:59,791
They're just a huge problem on the beaches

630
00:39:59,811 --> 00:40:03,033
and in the bays. So we of course were like,

631
00:40:03,153 --> 00:40:06,635
Oh, we should do, you know, this was back when we were really focusing on film.

632
00:40:07,135 --> 00:40:10,397
And, um, like this would be the most amazing thing ever, but you do

633
00:40:10,417 --> 00:40:14,820
need a film that can like sustain 130 and

634
00:40:16,461 --> 00:40:20,163
upwards degree heat in, you know, shipping containers

635
00:40:20,823 --> 00:40:24,527
and on the ground, right in Africa. Um, And

636
00:40:24,607 --> 00:40:28,228
that can be bounced around on a truck and can be frozen and

637
00:40:28,368 --> 00:40:31,709
frosted. So I'm not there yet. But I not

638
00:40:31,729 --> 00:40:35,371
there yet. I like that. I

639
00:40:35,431 --> 00:40:38,732
have this like, you know, it's Yeah, I have a little brain worm

640
00:40:40,042 --> 00:40:43,366
Now, you know, a lot of this time, it takes time, right, to develop these products, because

641
00:40:43,406 --> 00:40:47,170
it's almost like you're starting it from scratch for every single Evo

642
00:40:47,230 --> 00:40:50,694
product. And you would think, like, once you make one cup, other cups would

643
00:40:50,714 --> 00:40:54,098
be the same. But you're right, it's very different, depending on how they're shipped, depending

644
00:40:54,158 --> 00:40:57,802
on how they're contained in another container. You know, right

645
00:40:57,842 --> 00:41:01,827
now, for some reason, on the top of my head, I'm thinking, you know, in a protein like

646
00:41:01,847 --> 00:41:05,250
a protein powder container. There are the little scoops and

647
00:41:05,270 --> 00:41:08,393
things like that. You mentioned scoops. And I would imagine like that gets to a

648
00:41:08,433 --> 00:41:11,635
certain temperature and that, you know, that gets banged around a little bit, maybe a little bit

649
00:41:11,655 --> 00:41:14,978
more protected because of the powder, but still, you know, you want to make sure

650
00:41:14,998 --> 00:41:18,902
there's so many applications, but it takes time to develop. And

651
00:41:19,082 --> 00:41:22,405
this could be like, as you said, it could be, you know, three, four years where it takes time

652
00:41:22,425 --> 00:41:25,682
just to develop. you must have

653
00:41:25,722 --> 00:41:29,104
to have a lot of patience to be able to develop these things. Even

654
00:41:29,164 --> 00:41:32,285
just the sort of the use case you're using right now with the

655
00:41:32,325 --> 00:41:35,726
bags of water, you're probably like, oh, we could help so many

656
00:41:35,786 --> 00:41:39,068
people and so many like, you know, with the oceans

657
00:41:39,108 --> 00:41:42,489
and the bays and things like that, we can really protect that, but you're still,

658
00:41:43,029 --> 00:41:46,430
you know, you're not there. So how do you deal with that, the

659
00:41:52,089 --> 00:41:55,132
I'm a creative, just a born creative. So I don't have a

660
00:41:55,152 --> 00:41:58,794
problem with patients. I would say that the issue is funding.

661
00:42:01,316 --> 00:42:04,459
You know, you know, yeah, but

662
00:42:04,499 --> 00:42:07,821
like, it's, you know, funding. First

663
00:42:07,841 --> 00:42:11,044
of all, you need a lot of funding to do development. You need a lot

664
00:42:11,104 --> 00:42:14,386
of buy-in from, um, you know, so we've had like

665
00:42:14,606 --> 00:42:18,207
really great support from Konica and we have a,

666
00:42:18,367 --> 00:42:21,568
you know, a manufacturer for the last year and a half that got us

667
00:42:21,608 --> 00:42:26,350
to commercial, um, American conglomerate

668
00:42:26,390 --> 00:42:29,612
called Westfall Technic. They also are helping us

669
00:42:29,672 --> 00:42:32,873
like you need people who. One, they're

670
00:42:32,913 --> 00:42:36,154
committed to the same idea you are. They want to see it

671
00:42:36,174 --> 00:42:39,672
happen. They believe in the concept. Because you

672
00:42:39,712 --> 00:42:42,973
go through some and it's not like that, you know They're so used

673
00:42:43,013 --> 00:42:46,335
to working with class that work with plastic for a hundred years All the equipment is

674
00:42:46,795 --> 00:42:50,237
built for plastic the process engineers have

675
00:42:50,257 --> 00:42:53,539
been doing you know, they use this they use PFAS You

676
00:42:53,579 --> 00:42:56,921
know what PFAS are they spray Teflon on things

677
00:42:56,981 --> 00:43:00,523
to make them release from the molds and I'm like no

678
00:43:00,983 --> 00:43:05,005
way Examine everybody's

679
00:43:05,105 --> 00:43:08,356
process and then bum them out by telling them

680
00:43:08,396 --> 00:43:11,859
they can't use any of the tricks they've come up with. Everything has

681
00:43:11,899 --> 00:43:15,662
to be changed. And then that needs to be controlled. And

682
00:43:15,702 --> 00:43:18,845
so you need your manufacturer to buy in, and then you need your

683
00:43:18,885 --> 00:43:22,127
customer to buy in, you need, and

684
00:43:22,167 --> 00:43:25,370
then you need so that time takes money. And it

685
00:43:25,430 --> 00:43:29,853
takes a while to get a product that's going to sell, you

686
00:43:29,893 --> 00:43:33,176
know, at the volumes that would get you into the

687
00:43:33,476 --> 00:43:37,502
black and you start seeing a little profit. Investors want

688
00:43:37,642 --> 00:43:41,066
a five times return in a short amount of time. Of course. So

689
00:43:41,086 --> 00:43:44,530
you need investors that are also bought in. So yeah,

690
00:43:44,750 --> 00:43:47,874
so we're currently in the process of looking for our

691
00:43:47,914 --> 00:43:51,258
next round of investment. So that would be why this is on my mind.

692
00:43:51,318 --> 00:43:54,422
But yeah, so patience is one tiny part of it.

693
00:43:57,667 --> 00:44:00,789
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'll tell you, Reagan, this is I love I

694
00:44:01,190 --> 00:44:04,352
love this business. I love this idea, you know, and

695
00:44:04,392 --> 00:44:07,874
I just I love, you know, the saying, like if you go to better for all dot

696
00:44:07,934 --> 00:44:11,116
shop and if you want to buy individually, you know, for

697
00:44:11,276 --> 00:44:14,419
for my audience members, I just love how it says right off the

698
00:44:14,459 --> 00:44:17,921
bat, make your event better for all. I was trying to see how it would

699
00:44:17,981 --> 00:44:21,102
tie in betterforall.co or betterforall.shop and

700
00:44:21,142 --> 00:44:24,544
I'm like now I see it. It's making better for all by just having

701
00:44:24,584 --> 00:44:27,946
these cups and using these cups and it makes it so much

702
00:44:28,166 --> 00:44:31,548
better. It makes me feel better knowing that products

703
00:44:31,568 --> 00:44:35,791
like this are out there and they're growing. And I

704
00:44:35,871 --> 00:44:39,074
can't wait to see it at my next event that I attend, or

705
00:44:39,114 --> 00:44:42,417
if I'm not at an event, I'm gonna be like, you know what you should have? You should have these cups,

706
00:44:42,437 --> 00:44:45,960
because I mean, they're much better. So I'm definitely gonna be promoting it locally here

707
00:44:46,100 --> 00:44:49,383
and on the podcast. But yeah, this is

708
00:44:49,443 --> 00:44:52,646
wonderful. Really love the fact that you spent the time with

709
00:44:52,726 --> 00:44:56,449
us to explain the business, the innovation

710
00:44:56,469 --> 00:44:59,552
that goes into it. And I wanna thank you for the dedication, the time that

711
00:44:59,592 --> 00:45:02,715
you and your family have put into to making our world better for

712
00:45:02,795 --> 00:45:05,940
all. It's really great. So thank you so much for

713
00:45:05,980 --> 00:45:09,144
coming on the podcast. And we'd love to

714
00:45:18,417 --> 00:45:21,728
You too. Thank you, Reagan, for joining us here on the How

715
00:45:21,748 --> 00:45:25,029
to Protect the Ocean podcast. It's a great community to be a part of, and

716
00:45:25,049 --> 00:45:28,290
I'm glad you are now a part of it, Reagan, to be able to say, hey, you

717
00:45:28,310 --> 00:45:31,511
know what? We have this product that's good for the environment. You can use it. It's great

718
00:45:31,531 --> 00:45:34,812
to use. It's easy to use. It's a cup. Let's think about it. We need more

719
00:45:34,872 --> 00:45:38,073
products like this where everyday items that we get to use, whether

720
00:45:38,093 --> 00:45:42,114
it be at a festival, a sports venue, concert venue, maybe

721
00:45:42,174 --> 00:45:45,815
out you're having a picnic and you don't want to break any glasses or

722
00:45:46,375 --> 00:45:49,497
have all reusable you know drinks or containers and

723
00:45:49,537 --> 00:45:52,699
you just want to have these ones and you know they're fully compostable just makes it

724
00:45:52,759 --> 00:45:56,060
easy you don't have to think about it makes it easy they're well they're well

725
00:45:56,100 --> 00:46:00,043
priced and they compete with all the other non-sustainable items

726
00:46:00,183 --> 00:46:03,364
and so why not have this and i just think it's wonderful to

727
00:46:03,384 --> 00:46:06,986
be able to have this in circulation available for

728
00:46:07,026 --> 00:46:10,368
people to use at you know high quantities if they need it like you

729
00:46:10,388 --> 00:46:16,272
know reagan was talking about it i think it was like 140 000 cups were used unreal that's

730
00:46:16,332 --> 00:46:19,773
available to us in such big venues that are now

731
00:46:20,294 --> 00:46:23,656
not going to cause a lot of garbage because of those cups.

732
00:46:23,696 --> 00:46:27,398
And I'm looking forward to seeing how this company evolves and other

733
00:46:27,438 --> 00:46:30,959
types of innovative ways of using cups in any type of containers

734
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,361
that you need to scoop or you need to drink liquids out of or very

735
00:46:34,401 --> 00:46:55,226
different usages. I'm dot

736
00:46:55,426 --> 00:46:59,129
shop better for all dot shop take a look at what's available

737
00:46:59,650 --> 00:47:02,932
and i highly recommend that you buy a sleeve for two you know or three

738
00:47:03,213 --> 00:47:06,675
or four for your next event it's always great it's always wonderful

739
00:47:06,715 --> 00:47:10,118
to be able to have something that is sustainable i mean let's be honest that's

740
00:47:10,178 --> 00:47:13,365
why you're here if you want to know how to protect the ocean use these

741
00:47:13,425 --> 00:47:16,607
Compostable Cups from Better For All. That's it for today's episode. I

742
00:47:16,627 --> 00:47:20,009
really want to thank you for joining us. If you want to join the

743
00:47:20,069 --> 00:47:23,211
community, I'm creating an app. I'm in the midst of

744
00:47:23,311 --> 00:47:26,773
like talking back and forth to the creators and I've got some some

745
00:47:26,874 --> 00:47:30,075
prints I'm going to put out like some some mock-ups I'm going to put out what it's going to look

746
00:47:30,095 --> 00:47:33,377
like but it's a community app. I want people to be all on the same

747
00:47:33,438 --> 00:47:36,840
device like the same app where you can interact with each other. We

748
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:40,102
can have you know, AMAs, Ask Me Anything, or have, you

749
00:47:40,142 --> 00:47:43,645
know, scientists and business leaders on that are making sustainable items,

750
00:47:43,905 --> 00:47:47,387
so you can ask questions to them. And it's a wonderful, provide

751
00:47:47,467 --> 00:47:51,090
resources of where you can get these great materials and great products

752
00:47:51,130 --> 00:47:54,533
and sustainable products. I want to just basically have it all there. It'll

753
00:47:54,553 --> 00:47:57,775
be free to join. There'll be other, you know, products later on

754
00:47:57,815 --> 00:48:01,278
where there might be services or anything else that I provide that might be a little, you

755
00:48:01,298 --> 00:48:04,760
know, that'll be premium, but for the most part, it'll be free. All

756
00:48:04,780 --> 00:48:08,304
you have to do right now is just go and sign up for any kind of updates, and

757
00:48:08,464 --> 00:48:11,788
when it gets released, you'll have access to that app. It's

758
00:48:12,128 --> 00:48:15,391
speakupforblue.com forward slash ocean app.

759
00:48:15,491 --> 00:48:18,735
That's speakupforblue.com forward slash ocean app.

760
00:48:19,055 --> 00:48:22,979
I want to thank you for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have