you've probably tried using a paper straw to cut down on your plastic use
and it probably fell apart in your mouth. Let's face it.
But our next guest proposes another solution,
seaweed,
seaweed
based straws that don't dissolve in your drink and don't pollute the environment.
Pretty cool tricks now is c bergen TCU of lolly wear and see,
tell us about your straws,
why seaweed and does everything tastes like seaweed if you use it.
So good to be here today.
So I'm steve Magnante,
I'm the Ceo and founder of Lolly Wear and our vision is a plastic free future.
We're using seaweed to replace plastic at scale.
Seaweed is very scalable, regenerative, high performing and cost competitive.
So it's a really good solution to the plastics crisis
when it comes to using the seaweed straws. Do you taste the seaweed or
is there no difference,
There's really no difference.
So the straws are quite neutral and
we're getting incredible product feedback actually,
we're just at the National Restaurant Association
trade show and got phenomenal feedback,
our booth was swarmed.
There's a ton of people in a ton of restaurants
excited to replace paper and plastic with seaweed straws.
So what is the production process? Is it environmentally friendly.
So essentially Lolly wear has pioneered a
politicized material to replace plastic that can run
an existing plastic infrastructure and in fact
we produce 200° cooler than traditional plastic.
So it's less energy and a win for the environment and a win for for folks that
are typically used to taking a hit on performance with the paper straws and the corn,
plastic straws?
Our straws are 10 x higher performing than paper. So you can use them up to four hours.
So when it comes to harvesting the seaweed, how is it eco friendly to make sure that,
you know, these environments are not disturbed.
So lolly wear as a company is fighting climate change in two key ways.
So on the back end, as you mentioned,
we're growing a ton of ocean farm seaweed as it's growing.
It's capturing carbon from the oceans and from the atmosphere.
That's the first way that we're tackling climate change.
And on the front end with the straws, which I've got some here,
I don't know if you can see those, um we are replacing plastic.
So we're avoiding those emissions.
We've run the data on that and we've,
it's really exciting because seaweed is very promising for a plastic free future.
So just by virtue of using our product,
you are tackling climate change alongside us.
So now consumers can play a role in addressing climate change.
So, I just want to make sure I got this right.
You guys are farming the seaweed,
so you're not disrupting like ocean life and all that good stuff.
That's right. I just imagine farming on land, but in the ocean.
So these are super sustainable ocean farms,
A lot of them are women owned and we're really
excited to partner with more farmers in the future?
All right. So when it comes to the expansion, are we sticking with just straws?
If you say that it can essentially replace plastic, what else can you guys do?
So really the sky is the limit now that we have politicized technology.
We can essentially create more pellets to replace plastic
at scale just to give cheddar audience a preview.
We are launching our next product in october which injection mold seaweed.
So utensils are next and then next year we
are licensing the pellet to any manufacturer worldwide who wants
to replace plastic with seaweeds will enter into licensing
to really open up the scale and the impact.
Have you gotten any partnerships with restaurants or
any change that people might know about that?
They can go and try one of your plastic straws,
definitely.
Just in the first half of this year,
we've already on boarded 12 pioneering customers.
So one of them is um, sunday Motorcoach Cafe,
another really cool group is the cornerstone restaurant group.
So you can go and try our straws there and if you visit lolly wear dot com,
you can take a look at all those, all those partners and see who is near you.
So you can go try the straw.
Now let me ask you, let's say, I'm not a restaurant owner, Let's say I don't own a cafe.
Is there a plan to have these on the shelves and grocery stores.
So I could buy them for me and my family.
So lolly wear is super focused on
impact and that's where we're targeting food service
or really be to be So I encourage anyone who's interested in trying the straws.
They are pretty amazing.
Um to go to one of those 12 partners which you can find on our
website lolly wear dot com to see where you can go to try the straw.
Certainly the next couple of years we might be launching consumer packs,
but we're so thrilled to be launching with big businesses that use a ton of classic.
What drove the invention of these straws,
where they're just people like groans all over the
earth saying my cardboard straw keeps falling apart.
What drove you guys to make this product.
So I grew up on an island in Hawaii,
I'm not a native islander but I was born and raised there and I
watched like just a ton of plastic forming on the beaches on the,
on the shorelines in the ocean.
And that was the inspiration behind this product to
really address the plastic crisis with a scalable cost,
competitive renewable input like seaweed.
And so we're well positioned now to really have a ton of impact on big plastic.
And even on paper, as you noted, a lot of folks don't like those paper straws,
they're just,
they're just very low performing and actually not a lot of people know this,
but they have a worse carbon footprint than plastic, wow, I did not know that,
that is incredible, This is incredible product.
We appreciate you. Breaking that news on the utensils are very excited about that.
See Briganti ceo of lolly wear very cool.