In the summer of 2019, Retea Cups was founded by Toby Zhou with the goal of reducing single-use plastics consumption and creating sustainable ways to make and drink bubble tea.
Zhou says that she was frustrated at the lack of sustainable options when drinking bubble tea, and saw a gap in the market. As such, she decided to take the opportunity and sourced sustainable drinkware that would pair well with bubble tea. Retea Cups was then launched with the intention to spread environmental awareness and implement sustainability in our lifestyles.
Bubble tea produces an overwhelming amount of plastic waste: cups, cover seals, straws. Retea Cups combats single-use plastic waste by replacing them with reusable glass cups and accessories.
Retea Cups initially began by selling reusable glass cups and wide metal straws; perfect for bubble tea. Now, they have expanded to offer their own bubble tea products, such as tapioca, tea blends and syrups. You can also make boba at home with Retea Cups’ DIY Bubble Tea Kits, where they provide the products and ingredients to make their signature recipes.
Retea Cups walks the extra mile to prevent plastic waste and fully commits to sustainability. They make an effort to reduce waste by using biodegradable and recyclable packaging, which makes it low waste and eco-conscious. Instead of using plastic bubble wrap, packaging tape and styrofoam peanuts, ReTea Cups uses biodegradable starch peanuts that decompose in water and produce no toxic waste.
Retea Cups additionally partners with Eco Cart, a free Chrome extension and Shopify app for carbon-neutral orders. They calculate the cost of offsetting the emissions of manufacturing and shipping of each order. It uses funds to support sustainability initiatives such as renewable energy, forestry, and clean water projects, to cut carbon waste and reduce the effects of climate change.
Loraine Luong of Setting Mind interviews Retea Cups founder, Toby Zhou to learn more.
Luong: Was it a natural progression to expand sustainable boba drinkware into sustainable boba drinking practice, and make your own bubble tea products and recipes? How did you come up with this idea?
Zhou: Yes, it was a very natural progression! It has always been a goal of mine to be more environmentally conscious, especially by reducing my single-use plastic waste! It wasn’t until the end of my second year of university where I understood just how much waste came from my favourite drink, bubble tea. I could not find many sustainable alternatives to drinking bubble tea in the market, which pushed me into making a DIY version of a reusable bubble tea cup!
As I started sharing my creation with my family and friends, I realized so many other eco-conscious bubble tea lovers had the same issue as me, and the demand for my cups naturally increased. This inspired me to start my business because I knew I could make a difference and provide a sustainable solution to this problem!
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, the DIY Bubble Tea Kits became the answer for all boba lovers. What was the inspiration behind these DIY Bubble Tea Kits?
Listening to our customers and followers was the main inspiration behind our DIY Bubble Tea Kits. Before COVID, we were fully operating through a Google Form and physically meeting up with customers. Of course, during the lockdown, we couldn’t do that anymore. There was a big dip in our sales because we couldn’t meet up with customers and bubble tea shops weren’t accepting reusable cups anymore.
At the same time, I started making my own bubble tea and sharing it on Retea’s socials. It came to my attention that authentic bubble tea supplies are not easily accessible to many people that live outside of the GTA! I’ve had many ask where to get tapioca from, how to make it etc… The demand grew for bubble tea kits, and we had an existing brand that customers loved and trusted. It was natural to expand our product offering to our customers’ changing needs.
In June 2020, we moved onto eCommerce and started shipping our products worldwide (bubble tea kits to Canada and the USA only).
The workings of Retea Cups is a great example of implementing sustainability in every aspect: lifestyle, branding, production, packaging, etc. How can your initiative influence other companies and consumers to do the same?
In the 2 years of Retea operating, we’ve seen so much progress in companies and consumers! Of course, there is always room for improvement, but many companies are offering their own line of reusable straws and cups, and consumers are more aware of the plastic waste bubble tea produces. Bringing your own cup and straw is not so foreign anymore and we’re seeing more and more people joining this movement.
We hope that our continued growth and success will inspire others to do better and make positive changes. There is a growing demand for sustainable products and bubble tea lovers are growing more aware of the severity of climate change. I hope that this demand will pressure other companies to do the same!
What are your environmental goals, and how will Retea Cups contribute to this objective?
A few of our environmental goals are to continue to reduce our waste and carbon footprint. We plan on contributing to this objective by holding ourselves accountable for the impact we make. Of course, we are still a start-up with limited capabilities, but we plan on making small steps forward to this goal.
Whether it’s by shipping carbon-neutral, using only 100% sustainable packaging, donating to charities, or promoting educational content, we are always working to improve and do better. In fact, in one year, we estimate that we’ve prevented ~350,000 plastic/disposable cups from entering our landfills and oceans! This is assuming a customer uses our cups twice a week, every week.
Retea Cups have grown significantly over the past year. How do you envision the future of Retea Cups? Do you have plans to expand your company in other areas? Such as stepping outside of the bubble tea and beverage market?
This is a great question and still one I am asking myself! As a recent graduate, I’m only starting to work on Retea full-time—which means so many possible routes I can go. I’m still learning and figuring out what I want for the business and what I want to achieve. Besides improving our environmental and sustainable goals, we do have plans on scaling and expanding our business but don’t know exactly how yet.
Finishing off, do you have any advice or message you’d want to share for someone who wants to start their eco-conscious and sustainable journey?
My advice is to take small steps! One step at a time. Once you incorporate small changes into your daily routine such as using reusable cups instead of plastic or bringing your own bag to the grocery store, it won’t be as intimidating anymore.
You don’t have to go full-on zero waste to make a big impact. Educate yourself and watch documentaries on Netflix or follow other sources that provide and convey information in a way you can digest & understand. Reach out to others who are farther along this journey than you and see what you can learn from them. The possibilities are endless!
To learn more about ReTea Cups, visit their website.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
All images in this article are courtesy of ReTea Cups.
