Kate Stewart spent 17 years commuting the three-hour return trip from the Mornington Peninsula to Melbourne.
One fateful morning, Ms Stewart and her colleague headed to the local cafe with six reusable coffee cups in hand.
“We battled to juggle the six empty reusable cups on the way to the coffee shop. The barista asked us if we would like a cup tray to carry the six piping hot coffees back to the office.
“It felt painfully ironic. There we were, using reusable coffee cups but carrying them in a disposable coffee tray. Something that would be discarded at the end of the coffee run, or at best it would consume energy and water in the recycling process. At worst the cardboard trays would contribute to the 30% of paper waste not recycled and ends up in landfill each year,” Ms Stewart adds.
This light bulb moment led to the launch of Stay Tray, a reusable coffee tray made from 100% recycled plastic, a simple sustainable solution to carrying multiple keep cups.
“There simply wasn’t a sustainable, versatile reusable drink tray to be found anywhere. Those people, like us, who were sustainably minded, were using disposable cup trays again and again. Thousands of people everyday are consciously using their Keep Cup’s but are faced with only single use disposable alternatives to transport more than two coffees. We needed a reusable coffee tray.”
Ms Stewart wanted to keep Stay Tray 100% Australian owned and made, and to support Australian designers, engineers and manufacturers even though it would be half the price to engineer and manufacture Stay Tray abroad. All design, engineering and manufacture has been kept within a 60km radius of Stay Tray’s home on the Mornington Peninsula.
Stay Tray was awarded Silver in the Packaging Innovation and Design Awards hosted by the Australasian Institute of Packaging. Ms Stewart also developed and ran a successful Kickstarter Campaign to expand Stay Tray further.
Stay Tray was awarded winner in the beverage category of the WorldStar Packaging Awards in Germany. Stay Tray also received B Corp Certification, which means that Stay Tray meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact, according to Ms Stewart.
“At Stay Tray, we understand that we are a part of something bigger. We have a responsibility to help solve the social and environmental challenges facing the world.
“B Corporations represent an emerging group of businesses that are dedicated to using the power of business to create a positive impact on the world, not competing to be the best in the world but rather, to be the best for the world,” Ms Stewart concludes.
