These 3D-Printed Clay Coffee Cups Are Disposable, but Can They Save Us From Microplastics?

We’ve all done it. You’re in line at a coffee shop but forgot your travel mug at the office. You wait to order, trying to decide between buying a new $40 reusable mug at the counter or walking out with a little paper cup in your hand and a pang of guilt in your heart.

There’s some good news. A company named GaeaStar is offering a third alternative to US customers: a clay cup that sits somewhere between disposable and reusable, containing zero plastic and zero paper.

Starting today at Verve Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, you'll be able to get your hands on one of these semireusable cups. It's a 3D-printed clay vessel inspired by disposable clay cups traditionally used throughout South Asia. Mind you, it'll cost an extra $2, but GaeaStar founder Sanjeev Mankotia hopes you don't mind paying a little extra for an elevated coffee experience plus a little less guilt.

“We’re addressing the customer where they’re at,” Mankotia says. “A lot of people have reusable mugs but it can be inconvenient to use them, so they default to the throwaway option. Instead, here’s a product you can reuse, but if you get rid of it, that’s OK.”

To emphasize this idea, GaeaStar's promotional materials show people crumbling the shattered remains of a clay cup into their gardens. I received a few to try and, while the cups are too thick to comfortably crush by hand, you can just smash them on the ground or step on them. A product that becomes dirt over time doesn't fill me with as much dread as one that devolves into microplastics.

Rebuilding Local Traditions

The inspiration for GaeaStar's 3D-printed cup comes from disposable clay cups used throughout South Asia called kulhars, or bhars. These disposable clay cups are handmade from clay often dug from the Ganges River. Most of these cups are made within 10 kilometers of where they’ll be sold and used, a circular model GaeaStar plans to replicate to some degree.

Mankotia says GaeaStar isn’t interested in building a super factory churning out thousands of cups per day. It’s not looking to be the next Sysco or Georgia-Pacific. It’s thinking much smaller. The goal is to establish “micro factories” on a local scale, using local labor and