November 8, 2025 • Posted by Design Bay Area
At Design Bay Area, we love ideas that challenge the ordinary—and Gaeastar is reshaping one of life’s most familiar rituals: the to-go order. Their beautifully crafted, reusable clay cups and bowls offer an elegant alternative to single-use packaging, blending sustainability, artistry, and cultural heritage. We love their motto: Packaging from earth back to earth. In this Innovation Spotlight, Design Bay Area Co-Founder and CEO Dawn Zidonis sits down with Gaeastar founder Sanjeev Mankotia to explore how his vision bridges tradition and innovation, and why it just might change the way we think about convenience forever.
DZ: I’ve been really impressed in the way that you innovate by looking to not only technology, but history. What inspired the creation of GaeaStar?
SM: During my travels in India, I discovered the beauty of an ancient tradition: tea served in terracotta cups called ‘kulhars.’ This 5,000-year-old practice embodies perfect circular design: cups meant to be used once, then returned to the earth. I saw an opportunity to merge this timeless wisdom with cutting-edge additive manufacturing, creating ultra-thin ceramic packaging that addresses our modern plastic crisis while honoring traditional craft.
DZ: Tell us about how the GaeaStar cups are made. What is Surface Printing?
SM: Our cups are manufactured using our proprietary Surface Printing process, a specialized form of 3D printing that creates ultra-thin, axis-symmetric shapes in seconds. This breakthrough technology works across industries, from food and beverage to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The real innovation lies in efficiency: our ultra-thin ceramics use 75% less material and require only a single firing. Traditional glazed ceramics need multiple firings at higher temperatures and longer firing times. By reducing temperature, time, and material usage, we’ve created a manufacturing process that minimizes both raw clay waste and the single-use plastics we’re replacing.
DZ: What are the design principles that you follow at GaeaStar?
SM: First, function is paramount. Does this solve a real problem better than existing solutions? Our Clay Cups enhance the coffee experience by having no flavor of their own, letting you taste your coffee, not your cup. Plus, they function as a convenient alternative to single-use plastics due to their ultra-thin design, which makes them lightweight, portable, and they easily crush into powder when discarded.
Second, we think about sustainability, and that’s most often mediated by the materials we work with. Every material we choose, from the clay in our cups to the paper, fiber, and inks in our packaging, must be the safest, healthiest option available. We’re always searching for the most premium, organic materials that are better for both people and the planet.
Third, our products must be irresistibly beautiful. If people aren’t drawn to our products, they’ll never use them. We design our cups to feel as natural in your hand as your MacBook Pro looks on your desk, seamlessly integrated into modern life. Clay’s inherent richness creates subtle variations that make each cup uniquely yours, fostering an immediate sense of ownership and care.
Finally, we collaborate with partners on thoughtful accessories like sleeves and reusable lids for people who need mobility without spillage. While we’d love everyone to slow down and savor their coffee at a café, we design for real life and real needs, continuously prototyping new materials that align with our circular philosophy.
DZ: How do you hope GaeaStar products will change consumer behavior around plastic use and on-the-go consumption?
SM: We’re drowning in plastic. Consider this: 90% of all plastic ever made has never been recycled, and half of all plastic produced is single-use, generating 460 million tons annually. This waste ends up in landfills, incinerators, or polluting our environment with microplastics.
The crisis is most visible in on-the-go consumption: all those single-use cups and containers are used for mere seconds, but persisting in landfills for millennia.
We believe the solution isn’t moralizing behavior change, but creating products that enhance people’s lives. We need premium experiences that don’t sacrifice performance, they improve it. Too many sustainable solutions expect people to compromise, but deeply ingrained behaviors only change when new options make life easier.
Our approach is deliberately paradoxical: infinitely reusable, yet guilt-free to discard. This flexibility works in single-use settings, while enabling deposit systems at cafés and restaurants. Our solution rewards good behavior (reuse), but also makes it OK to throw it away after one use; it’s just earth going back to earth. Most recycling systems require perfect behavior in order to work; we’re baking in human imperfection into our system.
DZ: In an industry dominated by plastic and paper, why are your customers choosing GaeaStar?
SM: Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most “paper” to-go packaging is actually plastic-lined. We’re really talking about a plastic-dominated industry creating massive amounts of single-use waste that leaches microplastics into our environment and bodies.
Our customers are awakening to this crisis and its dual impact on planetary and personal health. The moment someone holds one of our Clay Cups, the superior quality and materiality is immediately evident. People come to us for our story, but they stay for the premium experience.
The result? A genuinely better user experience where sustainability and wellness are natural benefits, not trade-offs. Plus, coffee simply tastes better in clay.
DZ: Where can we find GaeaStar cups in the Bay Area?
SM: You’ll find our cups at Verve Coffee Roasters and SFMoMA in the Bay Area. Heading north through wine country? Stop by Hotel Healdsburg. We’re also working with partners worldwide who serve as real-world testing grounds, helping us continuously refine and improve our products through field experience.
DZ: We’ll be gathering for Design Healdsburg, so we’ll definitely plan to stop in to order a coffee!
DZ: What’s next for the company?
SM: Customer adoption and scale is everything in sustainability because you need volume to drive real impact. We’re expanding production capacity to meet our growing waitlist of orders, getting our cups into more locations globally.
In the future, we’re excited by the idea of creating a recycling ecosystem, where used cups can be collected and the clay material can be recycled into a variety of functional use cases, such as sand replacements for green cement that sequesters carbon, or as soil amendments for agriculture to lock in moisture and prevent erosion. There’s an emerging body of research that shows how useful clay is.
These ideas are the final piece of our circular vision: beautiful, functional products that enhance your experience while caring for the planet.
About GaeaStar
We are a California-based company elevating the customer experience by redefining packaging with next-generation manufacturing, delivering sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics.
By building the factory of the future, we are re-imagining packaging that is functionally superior, more luxurious, and eco-friendly – proving that sustainability doesn’t need to compromise quality or convenience. What’s not to love?
Ancient traditions catalyzing innovation.
GaeaStar was founded by Sanjeev Mankotia, inspired by his travels back home in India, where tea is traditionally served in terracotta cups, or ‘kulhars’—an eco-friendly practice dating back 5,000 years. These single-use cups, designed to be discarded, sparked the idea of merging this ancient tradition with modern additive manufacturing to address today’s plastic waste crisis.
The name GaeaStar reflects this mission, blending ‘Gaea,’ the Greek goddess of Earth, with ‘Star,’ inspired by ‘Tvastar,’ the divine artisan in Hindu mythology, symbolizing craftsmanship and innovation.
We’re inspired by nature’s packaging.
At GaeaStar, biomimicry inspires our approach to sustainable design. In nature, the shell of an egg is the perfect example of packaging—light, thin, and strong.
Similarly, our packaging is made from clay, composed of natural minerals like silica and quartz. By mimicking the egg’s ingenious design, we aim to create ultra-light, thin, and strong packaging solutions that redefine sustainability.
We’re a team challenging the status quo.
At GaeaStar, we’re a diverse team of Engineers, Ceramicists, and Technologists committed to eliminating plastic waste through next-generation manufacturing technology. By prioritizing convenience without compromising sustainability, we develop cost-effective, plastic-free packaging and to-go solutions that push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Beyond product innovation, we’re dedicated to raising awareness and fostering a cultural shift—challenging single-use habits and promoting circularity for a more sustainable future.
Find out more about how you can implement GaeaStar into your sustainable business.
Sanjeev Mankotia, Founder, Gaeastar